Project V(ictory)
by MercifulChaos
Summary: AU. Taylor didn't know it yet, but building her new round green friend was just the beginning. Within her mind, a whole universe was waiting, wanting! To be built, to be born. To take to the skies, and fly! GUNDAM x WORM. Altpower!Taylor
1. Chapter 1

Project (V)ictory

A Gundam x Worm Crossover

+++PROLOGUE: THE ORIGIN+++

It was the day after my mother's funeral that I locked myself in my room with all sorts of junk and equipment that I scoured from the house, from the living room to the garage.

About five hours later, I stumbled out of there with a satisfied feeling to meet the face of my worried father.

I was not alone.

"Hi! Hello!" The large light green ball in my arms greeted my dad, dolly eyes and squiggly lines on its face flashing with each word.

I answered my father's shocked expression simply:

"Dad, I think I'm a cape."

+++V+++

It was three days after that when I decided it might be time to tell Emma, who decided to let me have some space after my mother's funeral, about my new abilities. In that time, I've done a few things besides my first work, the Highly Automatic Robotic Orb.

 _Haro, for short._

I've first fixed up the mess I left behind from the things I ruined in my room, and then I did Dad a favor and looked over the car to see the things I could modify on there. It was a productive few days as I tested what I can and can't do, and right now I was working on some of the less complicated things I could do, fixing my ruined computer.

It was just about lunch time that I finished my work when Haro's eyes flashed and he made a beeping noise.

"Taylor! Taylor!" He called my attention. "Door! Door!" He said as he bounced up and down.

Sure enough, the doorbell rang. Huh, didn't know I put that kind of sensor on him. Better check that later, I wasn't really all that coherent when I first made him. I just wanted the image in my head to become a reality, the details of how I made him and what he did were still a bit sketchy, being too busy trying to take my mind off mom's death and focus on something else. It's like I had a case of a really vague tunnel vision or something.

I stood up quickly and rushed down the stairs on to the door, knowing who was on the other side as I opened it.

"Hi Taylor!" Emma Barnes smiled widely and wrapped her arms around in a warm hug, one which I returned in full. I sighed happily, I didn't realize how much I missed her these last few days.

"Hi Emms." I said, pulling back just a bit with a smile on my face. "Sorry I haven't been around much these days." I apologized sheepishly. I gestured for her to come in and she obliged. Emma was my best friend, I really shouldn't have ignored her this much, even when she gave me space to mourn.

"It's okay Taylor, I understand." She gave me an assuring smile as she sat down on the couch. "I know you needed some time for yourself after everything that happened." I sat down across her on the smaller chair, smiling gratefully.

"Thanks Emms." She understood me like no one else, and it's great to know she had my back even when I didn't pay attention to her. Man, I feel like such an ass for not at least going to her once and telling her I'll be okay. " You're the best."

"I know." She winked at me cheekily, leaning back on the couch. "So what's been going on with you these last few days?" She combed her vibrant red hair back as she asked carefully, mindful of what happened.

"Oh, lots of stuff actually." I kept a straight face, having decided that I'd do this with style. I let no emotion show on my face despite the giddy smile that wanted to break out.

"What kind of stuff?" Emma's eyes suddenly narrowed suspiciously. Having known me for most of my life, Emma knew my quirks from the inside out. She saw the look on my face and immediately found out that something was going on. I kept quiet, trying to maintain the whole charade.

"Come on Tay, I know you're hiding something! Tell me already!" She demanded, sitting up on the couch. My facade crumpled and I broke out a nervous but excited smile.

"Uh well," If this was anyone else I might have gotten away with it, but it was Emma, I really should have known better.

"It's better if I just actually showed you." Emma leaned forward a bit more in anticipation, and I smiled. "Haro!" I called up to my room.

There was a small commotion from upstairs, and Emma looked over just in time to squeak as something green vaulted over her, over the couch, landing right on my lap.

"I'm here! I'm here!" Haro's eyes flashed up to me, flapping his vent-like ears for like he was looking my approval at his timely arrival. I smiled and gave him a pat, turning him around to face Emma, who looked at my invention in shock and confusion.

"Emma, I'd like you to meet Haro. Haro, meet Emma Barnes, my best friend." I grinned audaciously at her slack jawed expression.

"Hello Emma Barnes! I'm Haro!" The Haro greeted Emma enthusiastically, bouncing a bit in my lap. Emma answered with a stunned silence that seemed to last forever, then:

"Oh my gosh Taylor! Is he what I think he is!?" Emma jumped up from the couch and pointed at Haro. "Did you actually build him!?"

"Yes Emma, I did." I couldn't help myself, I laughed. "I built him in a few hours, so I'm thinking I might just be a cape."

It would take even pure geniuses with a knack for building things to make little bots like my Haro weeks, maybe even months, to build. And given that I created him in my room with just the stuff I had in there, in such a short amount of time, makes me doubt I'm anything but a cape. That and I never really had an interest in creating bots until now.

"Holy crap." Emma bounced in place, excitement rolling off her as she strode over to me and picked up Haro, who beeped and flashed his eyes at her curiously, flapping his vents. "Aww, he's so cute!"

Evidently my Haro's reaction made him look adorable, as Emma cooed at him and held him up like toddler.

"I'm not cute!" Haro responded to her affections by squawking indignantly, flapping his earlike vents more insistently. "Not cute! Not cute!" Emma giggled at him, making baby faces at his annoyed reactions.

"Oh but yes you are, yes you are!" I laughed as Emma continued to treat Haro like he was a baby. She smothered him and flashed a wonderfully giddy expression at me, "Oh Taylor, he's so adorable!" She sat back down on the couch and set him on her lap, petting him like a little puppy.

Haro quieted down and just huffily accepted her ministrations, yet I could tell that he actually quite liked what Emma was doing though.

I giggled a bit, Haro was such a baby.

"So, you're a cape now huh." Emma continued petting Haro, but she was looking at me now. "How'd that happen?" Her curiosity showed through her eyes.

"Well, I dunno really." I answered honestly, because I really had no idea. "The day my mom was buried, when dad drove us home, I ran to my room to wallow away on the bed thinking about how unfair the world was and how I'd never see mom again because of some stupid accident. Just seeing her coffin buried under a pile of dirt made me realize that mom was never ever coming back and I felt so sad that I cried and cried until I didn't realize that I cried myself to sleep."

I felt a sting at the back my eyes.

I wasn't over my mom's death, but she would have wanted me to be strong, most especially now. I held the tears back and steadied myself.

"Oh Taylor." Emma looked at me in sadness, and I felt Haro's eyes looking at me, looking like he was listening to what I said intently.

I trudged on, recounting the events with a small grimace. "I didn't wake up until it was already morning of the next day, and immediately an idea was running in my head and I just had to make it come to life."

With a sigh I leaned back on the chair, adjusting my glasses.

"After that it was a great big blur, I just became consciously aware once I finished him up." An embarrassed spread across my face as I recalled what happened next.

"I couldn't remember anything then, all I remember was the boiling need to create him and poof," I snapped my fingers, adding to the expression. "The next thing I know my room was a mess, and I think almost every electronic device in there was wrecked, I think I used it all on him. Everything was ruined Emms, you should have seen it, my computer, the alarm clock, the wiring on the lights, just about everything, even the _wifi router_. It was like a hurricane went through my room. It was a disaster."

I smiled sheepishly, thoroughly embarrassed by the memory.

"Dad looked absolutely aghast at the remains of what I scrapped in my room!" Though I felt bad about what I did, I still laughed just a _teensy tiny bit_ as I recalled Dad's reaction.

 _Sorry Dad, I'll make up for it with the car though! I promise!_

"Wow." Emma looked parts thrilled and giddy. "I can't believe it, my best friend's a real cape." She looked down at Haro in wonder, and Haro rolled up to meet her with his own eyes. "You built this guy all by yourself and I've never seen you being into building stuff, doesn't that mean you're a Tinker?"

I nodded at her, "Yeah, I'm a Tinker."

My dad and I looked up the classifications for parahumans online, trying to find what kind of cape I'd be described as.

"I haven't exactly found out what my specialization is, but it's definitely related to engineering and robotics." I built Haro in my room, with a bunch of scraps, I think that would more that qualify me for robotics. "Maybe a bit of AI and coding too. Watch, Haro: Search online database for definition of Parahuman Classification, Tinker."

Haro rolled back down to face me, little eyes and the lines that made up his mouth flashing. "Searching, 1,987 results found." His robotic voice retained its cutesy tone, just a bit more formal, "Verbally describe most trusted definition?" He inquired while flapping his vents.

"Yes." I answered, grinning at Emma's amused face.

Haro complied, saying:

"Parahuman Classification: TINKER, parahumans with the capability of creating devices and item as well as altering devices beyond usual restrictions of current personal knowledge possessed and surpassing laws of physics. Are known to use resources of barest amount to create such devices with complex designs. These parahumans are known to have 'Specializations', that is having a skill tree they are more well versed in than others. Source: The World of Parahumans; by William Manton, PhD."

Haro ended his description with a beep."Did I do good? Did I do good?" His manner of speech went back to his cute robotic childlike tone, immediately seeking my praise.

"Yes Haro, yes you did." I nodded at him with a big smile, proud of my invention.

"Did good! Did good!" said Haro, happily bounced on Emma's lap. My best friend laughed at the little orb's joy and set him down, watching as he bounced around the living room freely.

I smiled and decided to show her just one more thing that the little guy could do. "Haro, can you go get Emma an apple?" I requested, and Haro stopped bouncing. He gyrated his whole body to me and flapped his ears, asking:

"Green Apple or Red Apple?" Haro robotic voice sounded out, asking hesitantly. I grinned, I've actually done this before for Dad, but Haro used his more formal tone and actually asked me what the apples were in their more scientific botanical names. Since then his systems learned to use be less formal and less technical with his descriptions. It's how I figured out that he was a learning AI.

I smiled. "Red apple, pleeeeaaase." I clapped with my hands, encouraging Haro.

"Roger, roger!"He replied with an excited bounce. He rolled off until he reached the kitchen table, and paused.

Opening his ear vents, Haro extended two little mechanical arms out, complete with small gloved hands. From his bottom half jutted out similar two circular plates, giving the little bot the impression of having legs and feet.

"Whoa..." Emma watched in surprise as the now more humanlike Haro gathered himself and jumped up onto the table, plucking an apple and placed it on a plate from the center. With that done, Haro landed back down and waddled over to Emma with his little legs and feet, handling the apple with great care with his tiny hands.

"Apple! Take Apple! Red Apple!" Haro offered the apple to Emma, holding it up to her with his little arms. Emma smiled benignly at him and picked it up gratefully.

"Thank you, Haro." Emma took a bite from to apple just to show him that she appreciated it.

"You're welcome!" Haro tucked his impromptu limbs back in to himself so he could return to his ball form and rolled over to me," Taylor! Did good?" He flapped his ears, looking at me eagerly.

I picked up the little guy and put him on my lap, smiling a proud smile as I looked at him. "Very good, Haro." I pet his head, making him flap his ears appreciatively.

"Very good! Haro is very good!" He spun on my lap in celebration, eyes and mouth flashing.

"He's just...amazing, Taylor." Emma said breathlessly. "You actually programmed him to do all this stuff with so little, imagine what you can do it you had more time, if you had more material..." She trailed off, mind looking like it wandered off from the possibilities. "You could do so many things..."

"I know." I said seriously, setting Haro down and standing up. "It's actually all in my head now Emma, there's so much stuff in here and they all just want jump right out." I tapped my head lightly, seeing the images, seeing the possibilities. The things I could build, all flashing before me...

"And all they're waiting for is me."

 _They were waiting for me to make them._

 _To give them_ _ **life**_ _._

I looked at Haro, who was rolling around mindlessly, exploring the living room. He was a small technical wonder, I'm sure anyone with some big enough brains would be able to make something like him, but I made him with just junk from my room and I wasn't even lucid. I wanted to do more, to build more.

"You're restless, I can tell." Emma said, giving me a worried look. She was right, I was. I had so many things I wanted to do, but I felt so limited.

 _So cramped._

Emma stood from the couch and came over to me, enveloping me in her arms. I leaned in to her, grateful for her comfort. "You have all these new things you can do and you want to make them as soon as you can, but you know the problem..."

I did.

My father.

Who had just lost his wife...

 _And now his daughter was a cape._

Well, I'm a Tinker, I could probably hide myself from everyone and just keep making small things that wouldn't be noticed by the heroes and villains. I could just pretend to be a normal girl and no one would suspect a thing. I'd just be Taylor Hebert, the daughter of Danny Hebert who'd with a knack for building stuff like computers and programming operating systems. Simple everyday things.

But I couldn't.

He might not have realized it by now, but I had big plans. Big things to make, to create, to program. _To give life to._

And we lived in Brockton Bay. A city filled with capes. And heroes that were far outnumbered by the villains. Villains that wouldn't hesitate to tear me apart once they found out about me.

I could go to the Protectorate and be a Ward. But that meant being a hero, and as much as I wanted to I know my father doesn't want me to go out there and put myself in danger.

That just meant I would have to sit still and be the good little daughter, keep to myself and stop trying to build the ideas that filled my head. I hated it, but I knew how hard it would be for Dad if I ever decided on being a full time cape. I could be careful, I could be subtle. But that just doesn't seem possible for me. Haro was just a fraction, an _infinitesimally small_ fraction of what I knew I could do.

It was in my power. It was the things I could make. I just couldn't be contained. Imprinted in my brain were technical miracles that could possibly change the world! Staying here, controlling myself. Controlling my desire.

 _It all just feels so...limiting._

"You know you can just talk to him about it, right?" Emma gave me a pointed look. Like what she said was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I could, but I think we already know how he's gonna react." I stated.

"How can you be so sure?" Emma pulled back a bit and raised a delicate red eyebrow at me.

"We just lost Mom, Emma. Dad wouldn't want me to be all that I can be if he knew the things I'd be able to do. I'd have a painted target on my back." I just did not want to hear that from him, I don't know if I had it in me to obey him, because the urge, the desire. It sung to me, it wanted to be let free.

"And I'm sure he's said all this to you already because you've already told him. Oh wait, you didn't." Emma said flatly, looking at me like I'm an idiot. "You never know until you tell him."

I sighed, I knew she had a point. Keeping it to myself and keeping things from my father right now, in such a delicate time, I could already tell it was a recipe for disaster. "I guess I really should, right?" I intoned my words like a question but I knew her answer.

"Yes, you should." Emma said brightly, pulling away from me. "My dad always said that talking is key." She nodded to herself, like she was proud of remembering her father's lesson.

"Alright, I'll talk to him." I held back a sigh, this was gonna be a long night.

"Talk! Talk! Talk is key!" Haro added in helpfully, rolling around both of us.

"Yes it is Haro, yes it is." Emma cooed while she picked Haro up to her again, "We're gonna make sure your mommy talks to grandpa so she won't make a big mistake and regret it right?" She cuddled Haro like a little plush toy.

 _Wait._

"Mommy?" I asked in surprised.

"Well you did make him right?" She said plainly, playing around with the round little robot in her arms. " That obviously makes you her mommy. Plus he does all the things you tell him to, and he keeps looking at you for your approval. Like he wants you to praise him." She nodded to herself with each assessment. "That's what a child does, he wants your acknowledgement." She smile smugly at me, rocking Haro in her arms. "Face it Taylor, you're a mother."

I opened my mouth to argue.

"Taylor! Mommy!" And of course, Haro butted in with best timing.

"See what I mean?"If anything, Emma's smile grew even more smug.

"But I'm not..." I wanted to argue but I knew she wouldn't budge. She would forever think that Haro was my child and I was his mother.

Well in all technicality she was right. I made him so I was his mother.

Technically.

But I was still 13 years old though. _Having someone call me mommy felt awkward..._

"You're not what?" Danny Hebert interjected with clueless tone, coming into the living room to join us. He smiled warmly at Emma. " Hello, Emma. It's nice to see you here again." He saw her holding onto Haro and smiled wider. " I see you met the newest addition to the family."

 _Oh you have got to be kidding me!_

"Yes Mr. Hebert. I did." Smug was no longer an apt description to the smile on Emma's face. It's transcended boundaries of the mortal planes to revel in its undeniable triumph.

"I told her I'm a cape." I said flatly, trying to divert the topic to something else. _Anything else._

"I can tell." Dad nodded at Emma and Haro direction. "I knew she'd be the first one you'd talk to about this, so I came prepared." With a flourish he lifted his arm, showing us his bag of groceries. "You gonna stay for a while Emma? I was actually gonna whip up some grub, you're welcome to eat with us."

"Actually Mr. Hebert." Emma carefully let go of Haro and let him bounce off and away. "I think it might be time to go back home. I told dad I'd only be here for a bit, so he might be worried now." It was obviously a lie, Alan Barnes knew Emma would be in safe and capable hands when she was with us. She was just leaving so I could talk to Dad about my issues. Right now.

 _Not exactly a good time Emms!_ I threw her a look.

She threw one back. _You have to do this as soon as possible!_ Her look said.

"Oh," Dad said, blinking. "That's a shame. You sure you don't just want me to phone Alan and tell him you'll be fine here?" Dad had no idea what Emma was trying to do, and so he tried to be nice let her stay for a bit. For my sake, because I told him I missed Emma.

 _Oh Dad._ I understood now, the longer I put this off the more this would hurt. For both of us.

"Dad, it's fine." I waved off his attempts to implore Emma into staying. "Emma probably has stuff to do with her family too. She shouldn't stay here just for me."

 _My best friend is trying to this easier for us and she wants to keep this between the two of us, Dad._

Is what I didn't say.

Emma gave me a grateful look and smiled. "Yeah Mr. Hebert, that too." She said to my dad. "I'll be back later to hang out with Taylor, I promise." She's saying she wants to know what happened and will come back for it later.

 _Let's hope this doesn't blow up in our face, Emma._

"Alright, if you say so Emma." Dad relented. "Just don't be a stranger okay? You're always welcome here." Dad said kindly to Emma.

"Welcome here! Welcome Emma!" Haro supplied earnestly, bouncing and flapping his ears. Emma and Dad laughed. I did too, just a bit.

"Thanks Mr. Hebert." Emma replied gratefully to my father, "I won't forget it."

"I'll walk her out the door." I stated, to which my dad nodded and went off to the kitchen. I picked Haro up and led Emma out the door.

"You know I'm right." Emma said as she stood from our doorstep. "Talking about this sooner will make things easier."

"Will it really make it better though?" I replied tiredly, having already accepted that the quicker this was over with the better.

"It might, or it might not. We'll find out won't we?" Emma hugged me one last time, sandwiching Haro between us.

"Find out! Find out!" Haro muffled voice sounded out, making Emma laugh as she let me go.

"I'll see you later, okay?" With one last pat on Haro's head, Emma went on her way back home

"Okay." I muttered, more to myself than anyone else. With a determined look on my face and Haro held tightly in my arms, I turned around and went inside. Ready to face what was coming next.

 _No turning back, tell him about what I want and what I was planning to do. Tell him I plan to do big things and that I want to be a hero._

I can totally do this.

+++V+++

I waited until we finished eating before I would begin. Lunch was an enjoyable affair, all told. We talked about Emma, about Haro, about his job and we even laughed about the small nonsensical things. But we never really talked about my newly acquired abilities. I was scared that just interjecting it into our pleasant conversations would suddenly start a discussion that I wasn't just ready for. I needed to gather my nerves for what was to come, think of the right words to say.

 _I can't botch this, just keep calm and be levelheaded. You can do this._

I watched as Dad took our plates so he can start washing them, detecting just a bit of rigidity in the way he moved. I had volunteered to clean up the table and dishes, but he insisted on doing it himself.

He has done so ever since Mom's funeral.

In truth, he's been really different since Mom died. It was understandable but it's just that I felt he's...shut down. Everything he does felt so mechanical now, like he was a puppet going through the motions of some unseen strings. It's silly, because he has indulged me whenever I talk about my new powers and what I've done with them, even though I could feel just a hint of weariness in his eyes whenever he sees me going off in a tangent. Mom's death hit me hard, but I could only imagine just how much it has affected him, losing the love of his life so suddenly.

This was the biggest reason I couldn't bring myself to say what I wanted to become with my new abilities, the possibility of hurting Dad was so big. Would he finally snap when I declare that I want to live the life constant danger? That his only family left was actually volunteering to be another hero, a profession that had a high mortality rate?

"Danny! Can I help?" Haro rolled up to Dad and bounced in place, eager to help. My father glanced down the excitable green orb with a fond little smile.

"Nah, buddy. I got this, go play with Taylor." Dad shooed Haro away lightheartedly, making the little bot obediently bounce off to me.

"Play?" Haro flapped his ear vents at me, and I took a moment to just admire how adorable I had made him look.

His eyes were a simple but cartoonish and beady sort of design with the lines that parted him in the middle curved in a way to make it look like a big goofy mouth. Plus, the way he flapped his vents with certain gestures, just made him all the more endearing.

Dad was sold after the first few minutes of seeing him. My father was an actual honest to god nerd, and seeing a real live robot, even though it was a cute little ball, pushed all the right buttons. He quickly accepted Haro and I was so proud of my little bot for bringing out a real smile on my father's face, something that's been starting to get rarer as the days went on.

I shook my head with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Haro. Maybe later? You can go explore around the living room, just don't break anything okay?"

My little robot made a small sad noise that wrenched my heartstrings, but he immediately perked up and squealed out a cheerful "Okay!" and rolled off to our living room.

I glanced at him as he went. Right there when I told him I couldn't go play with him, I sensed a flash of emotion besides his usual happy disposition. Haro wasn't just a dumb little robot with simple functions. He observed and he learned, but it seems like I designed him to be a friendly and happy little ball of sunshine. He knew how emotions worked. In just the few days that he was born Haro learned how to feel emotion.

 _He was like a living being._

I realize this was getting repetitive of me, but I actually made that complicated ball of programming and robotics in a few hours. In my house that didn't have any sort of sophisticated technology.

"Dad, we really need to talk." The words slipped out of my mouth very suddenly. My mind caught up to what I just said and my eyes widened.

I quickly redirected my eyes back to father, and saw that he had become very still.

Okay, that was not how I wanted to start this. But that's fine. I haven't fucked it up yet, I'll just go with the flow. I still have the things I wanted to say ready just in case.

"Oh." His back was to me and I couldn't actually see his face, but somehow I felt his jaw lock up. "What about, kiddo?"

He was trying to sound casual but I heard tiredness in his voice. He knew what was coming next.

"It's about what I want to do with my powers Dad." I paused and watched him carefully, preparing for his reaction to what I was about to say next.

Well, here goes nothing: "I want to be a hero."

I had thought about all the things I would feel after finally saying those words to my father. I thought some unseen weight would finally lift from my shoulders, something like relief flooding me after I say these simple words. But no, none of that really happened. I felt lighter for sure, and there's just a bit of relief. But they were soon replaced by a dreaded sort of anticipation that formed in your gut and just stayed there.

The silence didn't help.

My father kept quiet for what seemed like forever, his shoulders taut with tension and his back was rigid as stone. The encroaching silence slowly enveloped the room, making the dread in my gut grow colder with each second that passed.

Until finally, Dad spoke.

"I figured you would." My father's sounded worn-out, and his figure from the kitchen sink visibly slumped.

"You did?" My breathe hitched, hope blossoming in my chest. I tensed as Dad sighed audibly, shaking his head as he finally turned around to face me.

It was then that I saw the deep sadness that shone through his eyes, heavily coloring the small smile he gave me. The hope I felt faded away, realizing what that meant.

"You are your mother's daughter, Taylor. If she had an ability to do good, she would make sure to use it. I wouldn't expect you to be anything different." The smile on his face angled up just a bit as he mentioned my one of my mother's many virtues, yet the sorrow did not leave his eyes.

I thought of the words I prepared for this moment, and I gathered myself. I opened my mouth and said the next words very delicately.

"Dad, we've known that I wanted to do something about my powers from the moment I showed them to you. I'm sure you saw it in the way I talked, you saw how much I wanted to build more. Ever since I made Haro there have been tons of ideas that have been popping up in my head, and I've written so many of them down that I've lost count on how many sketchbooks I've used up." I tried to make the conversation a bit less daunting with that small joke, and it kinda worked judging from the quirk that Dad's lips made.

I continued, gaining momentum as words flew out my mouth more seamlessly, more confidently. "I know that having powers like these doesn't mean I have to be a hero, or be anything but a girl with a special talent. But can you blame me for wanting to be something more? I might sound so selfish and arrogant right now Dad, but I know the stuff I can make will make a difference out there! Brockton Bay needs all the help it can, are you saying I shouldn't do what I can to help it improve?"

Dad huffed a bit, crossing his arms with a hard look on his eye. "No, I'm not saying that, Taylor. I'm not about to tell you that you can't help people but I want you to think about just how much of a risk you're taking when you become a hero while doing so." He's doesn't sound like he's against it at least, so that's good. I can tell that he's going to judge me by what I was going to say next, so with a nod I pushed on.

"I have, Dad. There's a lot of things that will happen if I do this, I know you don't approve of me going out there and putting myself in the line of fire. You might argue that as a Tinker I don't really need to be anything noticeable, and you'd be right, I really don't." I trailed off for a bit to let him process what I'm saying. I needed to let him know that I was serious about this, that I've thought of the consequences. "I know that I can't really do anything out there like I am right now, I'm not like Alexandria or Eidolon. But you've seen Armsmaster Dad, you know what a Tinker can do with time and preparation, with actual _resources_." I said the last sentence with just a bit of respect.

I used the local Protectorate hero who was also a Tinker to make my case more valid, and also because I thought Armsmaster was awesome. I could admit that I was pretty disappointed when I understood that my powers weren't going to be like Alexandria. I always wanted to be like her, always wanted to fly around and punch bad guys without worrying about getting hurt because hell yeah, I was invulnerable. Alexandria was what every girl wanted to be if they ever became a cape, and I wasn't any different.

Of course I got over that quick, since I was also a fan of Armsmaster and his cool gear, his awesome motorcycle, and even that fact that he goes out as a guy who just trained himself to fight bad guys, without any real super powers. Just the stuff he built and his wits on the field.

With that in mind I pressed on, pleading my case with another example of a Tinker that I admired. "There's Dragon too Dad, no one has ever actually found where she is but she's a Tinker that helped tons of people by reverse engineering Tinker-tech and making it useable for everyone! I could do that Dad! I could help people too!" My voice raised in the end as I felt passion burn in me. I wanted to do this, I had the actual desire to help people. I dimly realized that maybe I'm coming on a bit too hotly now but I really have thought a lot about this, I'm not going into this like a big idiot.

My father didn't react to my tone rising, and I was grateful for that. I used to hear from Mom that Dad had a temper but he wouldn't ever show it or direct it to me. To know that he was still doing that even when I was being kind of insolent and persistent meant that he might be mad but he was controlling it for me, because he was listening to what I was saying and was trying to understand.

For a time Dad just looked at me with carefully impassive eyes, his arms still crossed. Then he slowly closed his eyes, and spoke. "Taylor, I'm your father. I don't want you to think that I'm trying to hold you back, but it's my duty to keep you safe." At this Dad opened his eyes, uncrossing his arms so he could put his hands on the sink and leaned back on it. "You might be a Parahuman, but that doesn't mean you're invincible." A faraway look came to him, eyes glazing over as he seemed to remember something. "Have you ever heard of the cape named Hero? He was a Tinker too, he was part of the Triumvate, the most amazing heroes ever, and people kept calling him the best Tinker in world. But that didn't help him all that much in the end, because he died too Taylor. Torn in half by the _Siberian_." He said the name with such emphasis that I shivered visibly, feeling my face go pale.

My father used an infallible example just like I did, to counter my words of reinforcement. But he used the name of the greatest Tinker hero to ever live, who was killed by an S class villain who has never been brought to justice even to this day.

My father continued as he noted my reaction by narrowing his eyes. "That's the kind of danger you're subjecting yourself to. I hate thinking about it, but one day someone like that psychopath might be the kind of person you fight, Taylor. Are you really ready for that?" His tone as he asked this could only be described as cold, and his eyes were more serious than I've ever seen it.

The question itself wasn't a real question, because I could hear from his voice that he had judged me from the way I reeled back to the Siberians name, as if I hadn't really given consideration to the things I would face should I become a hero. He made me feel like a fool, and unwillingly my temper flared, heat flooding to my veins and coloring my face with annoyance.

I knit my eyebrows together to show my frustration and glared at him in irritation, feeling anger at the way he embarrassed me. He was my father! Why couldn't he just understand and support me, his daughter? My next words came out of my mouth without a modicum of control.

"Do you think I'm an idiot? Of course I considered that! Of course I know that there are things out there I can't take on and that deadly people will fight me one day! I'm not invincible Dad! I know I'm not! But what exactly do you want me to do? Just not do what I can do? You don't get it Dad, it's what I can build! You've seen Haro, you know what I can do with just stuff around the house. I could make amazing things with more Dad! Stuff that could actually help a lot of people!" My tone reflected the indignant feeling I felt in my chest. I might be going too far now, but I can't help it. What good is having powers if I couldn't actually use it? And it's not like I wanted to be a villain!

 _I'm trying to help people Dad, why won't you let me!_

"I know alright!" Dad slammed his fist at the side of the kitchen sink, and I jerked back in surprise at the loud sound of flesh meeting pavement, somewhat abating my indignant fury. "I know you're amazing Taylor, even without your powers I've always been proud of you. What you've got right now just made you all the more special and as happy as you may be with what you have, it's not all about sunshine and rainbows." My father has responded to my anger with his own and now his words were more heated, more emotional. He glared at me, and for the very first since I could remember it seemed like my father was actually angry at me. "I've read up on what people want with Tinkers, Taylor. You can help a lot of people, but that doesn't mean all of them are actually going to be of the good sort."

He spread his arms out to put emphasis on his next words. "There are vile people out there, Taylor. People with power that will want you and they'll come after you, lock you away to force you to do things for them until you've got no use left!" Furiously, my father scowled. I didn't know if it was at me or at the thought of what could happened to me, but I have never seen him so angry. It silenced me, all my annoyance, irritation washing away from the pure unbridled emotions painted on my father's face.

"Do you know how that makes me feel Taylor? It terrifies me! I don't want wake up one day to my daughter missing and only find her when she ends up in a ditch, _dead_!"

"Dad..."Whatever words that would have been said was swiftly cast aside as I saw my father sob, bringing a hand to his mouth to choke it back.

Dad used the hand on his mouth to palm his face, calming down. He looked at me again, his emotions dwindling back down, until all that was left was the sadness.

"So you might say that you can make amazing things, that you can help change the world, but that doesn't matter to me, Taylor. In the end you're still my daughter and you are all that I have left. I don't want to lose you so soon...just like how I lost your mother."

In response, I could only bow my head down. Shame filled me as I realized that even with all the great intentions I had, I was only really thinking of myself. Maybe I would be doing great things, but my father would be stuck here. Constantly worried, constantly thinking about what would happen to me.

The room fell silent again. The only sound was my father breathing to calm himself more, and a distant noise of Haro roaming around the living room, beeping and chattering about.

Finally Dad heaved out, looking calmer but still looking tired. He pushed of the kitchen sink, went back to his seat at the table and sat down. "But I suppose...that really wouldn't matter." He sighed, bowing his head. "The point is you're a cape now Taylor, and no matter what I do I can't keep you away from the world forever. Especially because you're a Tinker, and a lot of people would just love to have you."

His hands down at table clasped together. "Keeping like you are, making control yourself to building just the little things aren't really gonna help you once they find you. The moment they do, you're a sitting duck." My father looked away from me to the side, trying to see something that wasn't there.

And looking like he just swallowed the world's most bitter pill, he sighed once more and spoke.

"So, I guess...as much as I hate it, I can't stop you, and I'm not going to."

At those words, my eyes widened. Hope once again blossomed in me, stronger than before.

"Does that mean that...?"

He gave me a small, tired smile.

"Yes, Little Owl. I hate it, but I can't stop it."

He looked me straight in the eyes, wavering just one more second. Then, finally:

"You can be a hero, if you really want to."

"YES!" The hope in my exploded into pure joy, making me jump from my chair.

Dad smiled at my joy. "Hold on, hold on. We haven't exactly worked on the terms and conditions of this agreement yet. I'm still your father and that means I'm prioritizing your safety first and foremost, even if you're going to go do something this dangerous." He said this very seriously, and I sat back down despite my joy. I got the deal and now I'm ready to negotiate.

"Okay kiddo, this is how we're going to do this..."

I listened raptly and we talked about what we were going to do for a few hours, but in my chest I was filled with happiness.

I was finally going to do this, I was going to be a hero!

+++V+++

 **THREE DAYS LATER**

"...needs some more mobility, joints too stiff. Gonna need to adjust those..." I mumbled to myself as I used my wrench to tune some of the parts in my latest invention.

"Haro, pass me the screw driver, the one with the five millimeter cross tip..." I held out my unoccupied hand absently, still looking at kinks I needed to readjust and the wires I needed to repurpose.

"Okay!" Haro squealed and obediently gave me the screw driver. I put it to work immediately, making sure to tighten up the screw holding the joints.

Just a bit of a touch up here and a bit of better placing there and...

"There we go!"

I pulled back and appraised my latest work with a smile.

Standing before me at just a little under five feet was a humanoid mass of metal and electronic wires.

Mostly grey in color from all the used steel and junk I scrounged up with Dad, it was built with the thought of emulating the human frame, with thin yet sturdy looking arms and legs made of steel and wires, complete with hands and feet, connected to a bulky torso and hip housing its main command servos and power supply. Its head was a simple camera with a single lens, connected to the rest of the body with a neck of wires and small rods, slumped due to being deactivated.

It wasn't all that impressive in retrospect, but it wasn't built to be impressive. I made this as the test bed for the things to come and I've decided to start small, but still bigger than Haro.

I stood at the basement of our house, looking at the left over materials and the tools I used to build this guy. Man, what a mess.

I'll need to clean that up later, for now though...

"One thing left to do..." I muttered, nervous. I closed my eyes and heaved out, preparing myself.

"Wait!" Emma, brandishing her phone."I gotta record this!"

I groaned. "Emma please," I already have a camera on standby right by my side, and she knew this. "You know you can't."

Her phone wasn't the safest thing in the world, it might go missing or stolen and then people would see me testing my stuff.

 _Plus, she was pointing it at me, and not at my invention. Can you be any more obvious?_

"Come on pleaaaase."

"No, Emma. I told Dad we'd do this safe, and safe is not having a recording of my test on a camera phone."

"Ugh, fine." Emma put the phone away with a pout, crossing her arms huffily.

Haro rolled into her. She smiled and brought him up, embracing him to her chest.

"You promised you'd behave." I glowered at her.

"And I am!"

"You're making fun of me!"

"Am not!"

"You just wanted to record my face if this failed!"

Emma gasped in an overly dramatic way. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing. I totally was not going to record you throwing a hissy fit if it ever blew up!" She hugged closer Haro to her."I wouldn't do that, right Haro?"

"Yes!" Haro chirped his agreement. "Emma wouldn't do that!"

She smirked at me, looking victorious. "See?"

"Oh yeah?" I glared playfully. "Why was the camera pointed at me instead of the experiment then?"

"It totally was not!"

"It was too!"

"Was not!"

"Girls?" Dad walked in on us threw raspberries at each other. He raised an eyebrow. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Emma's just being a brat." I went back to looking at my new bot, waving a hand Emma dismissively.

"I was not!" Emma cried childishly, glaring at me."I just wanted a video recording of my best friend's reaction to her first experiment! I wasn't doing anything bad!"

"She wasn't doing anything bad!" Haro supplied, vents flapping.

"Yeah see, Haro agrees!" She smiled down at the bot.

I glared at the round green bot.

 _Little traitor._

Dad laughed at that. "Well Emma, as nice as that would sound, your phone isn't exactly the safest thing in the world." Then a bit more seriously he said, "We really need to play it safe for now."

"Okay Mr. Hebert." Emma bowed her head in shame.

Hah, take that. I had Dad on my side!

"Besides," Dad suddenly said, walking to the camera. "The camera's angled so it'd catch Taylor reaction too, we can watch that later." Dad added, grinning. He made it so it did just that.

I gasped. "Traitor!"

"Yes!" Emma pumped her fist in triumph.

"Yes!" Haro cheered with her. Of course he would. I slumped, feeling defeated.

 _My own family has betrayed me!_

I groaned again. "Fine whatever, let's just get this started." I scowled. All the professionalism I tried to do was gone, my mood for it shattered.

I looked at my invention again. Right now it was plugged in to the nearby electric socket via the long extension cord jutting out of its back. The power supply I created for it would hopefully forego the need for that later, walking around without the need to be constantly plugged.

 _But the power won't last that long. An hour, maybe two._

I'll need a better way to power my inventions, but right now this would do.

I coughed into my fist again, regaining a bit of the earlier mood.

I looked at Dad, who was to the closest to the camera now. "Dad, we'll start the recording."

Dad nodded, pressing the record button.

I reached out to my newest work and pressed a button hidden inside its torso, booting it up.

I watched, wringing my hands nervously as I watched the machinery slowly start itself up. The body's limbs twitched as its own systems felt out the appendages.

The finally, the head stood up straighter and with small buzz, the lens of the camera flashed a bright pink.

"Yes!" I cheered and threw my hands up, "It activated!"

"It's working?" Dad sounded apprehensive, yet I could feel his excitement as well.

"Yeah..."I stared at it giddily and this time, it was actually staring back.

"Can you make it move?" Emma's voice was half curious and half excited.

"I'm about to." I said simply. I took from my work bench the control module I made for this.

"Wait a minute, is that a PSP?" Emma asked, looking at the controller.

"Uh, well, it used to be?" I needed something small enough to be held, so I just repurposed and modded the PSP I got from the junkyard to control the robot via a remote signal in the torso. I easily just mapped the controls already on the console, and I'd see what the bot was seeing through the repurposed small screen on it. Even added more buttons so I could use it more efficiently.

"You...well, you know what, never mind." She just sent me a bemused smile. Dad was smiling as well.

What?

"Huh?"

"It's fine, Taylor." Emma said, her smile still there. "Keep going."

"Keep going!" Haro cheered me on as well.

"Don't mind us, kiddo. We're just here for the show." Dad's tone was amused now.

Well, whatever. I coughed into my fist again, directing my gaze to by new bot, still stationary on the wall.

"Okay, let's get this thing moving." I moved the analog on the controller, gently.

In response, the head of my invention tilted upward. I grinned excitedly, it moves!

"Alright! Next, the arms." I pressed some buttons, and once again the robot responded, moving its arms up and down again. I did it again for the legs, raising them one at a time. I made its hands rotate around on its joints, then did the same for the feet, pivoting them one at a time so it wouldn't fall over.

The frame did everything I made it do, all without a bit of fuss.

"It's working..."Emma whispered breathlessly and Haro chirped a bit as well, mirroring what she said. Dad stood by the camera silent, observing with great interest as well.

I grinned excitedly, eager to make it do the next phase of testing.

"Okay next, we make him walk." I backed up a few feet away to give it space. I waited for just a moment, then started.

Under my command, the whole body moved, doing its best to imitate the act of walking like a man. In the five steps I made it do, it was clunky in its movement, stiffly going about the motions I inputted into the control.

I smiled at it, proud. It needed some major adjustments until it actually walked better, and my eyes had caught some joints not properly as I projected. But all in all it had done well, and I felt excitement in the thought of making it do better.

"A bit clumsy, but that was great!" Emma loudly approved of what she saw, clapping. Dad nodded as well, smiling at me and my test bot.

"Definitely a work in progress, but it's not a bad for a first run."

I nodded absently, agreeing. "Now to make it walk back."

First, I pressed the necessary buttons to make it turn around. It did so by rotating itself by the torso, then the hips and the legs followed. It did the same clunky walk to the wall, and then I made it turn around, returning it to its previous station. I walked back to it and pressed the button inside the torso again, turning it off.

That would be enough for now, friend. You did great.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"It works."

I mumbled, more to myself than anyone.

"I can't believe you did that with the stuff we got from the junkyard." My Dad's tone was still amused, but carried a bit of astonishment.

"Yeah Mr. Hebert." Emma nodded, looking at the bot with admiration. "This thing's amazing."

"I gotta fix the issue with how it moved though." I muttered, looking at the control module.

It was fine to use this for the test bot, but I definitely couldn't keep using it for the future models. Part of the reason it was so stiff was because of the way it inputs command, it was woefully inefficient.

"Have to find a way to make response time better too..." I kept mumbling, racking my brain for solutions.

"Taylor, you're babbling." Emma's voice snapped me out of my stupor. I blinked and looked back her, seeing her concerned face.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that." I grinned sheepishly.

"Well," Dad said loudly, pressing a button on the camera. "You should take a break, Taylor. You've earned it." Dad smiled at me, but I knew he was ordering me to rest.

"Okay." I said absently, thinking it was time to slow down. I flopped down the nearby couch, feeling exhausted.

"I'll go make you guys something to eat, I'll call you up when it's done." Dad went up and out of the basement, leaving me alone with Emma and Haro.

Emma flopped down next to me, Haro in her arms. "You should be happy, it worked." Emma told me, relaxing on the couch. She rested Haro on her lap, patting him.

I leaned back on the couch more comfortably, closing my eyes. "I am, really." I replied.

I actually was, my first new thing and it worked! I was excited just thinking about of the stuff I could do next. I put my head to work thinking of the test bots flaws, and how I could fix those.

 _Those movements mainly, hmmm..._

"Hmm, good." Emma mumbled close to me, as I kept thinking of what I could do. "Not everything's gonna go perfectly, you know. But you made it work, and it worked great. I thought so, anyway." She paused then. "Actually, I take that back. Some things you make are perfect from the start. Just look at Haro!" She squealed at the little bot.

"Yes! I am perfect!" Haro tittered at her and did a mechanical equivalent of preening.

I groaned. Ugh, last thing I needed was for Haro to start getting a bloated ego.

 _Seriously, that little guy is growing up too fast. Next thing I know he'll be learning how to pick up chicks just like he learned...how...to..._

My eyes snapped open.

I snapped my gaze to Haro, the little green ball of happiness that's been learning to do stuff like pick up apples in only hours after he was made. He even learned how to walk on his own using the internet and he wobbled only because of his size, but even that was more refined now. It was just his size that limited him.

I then looked at my newest invention. Bigger than Haro, and with the limbs to actually move like a human more. And I never programmed anything remotely close to an AI like Haro had in him.

I then looked at the control module. I made that so I could control the new bot remotely

Then I looked back again at Haro.

Then the control module.

Then back at Haro.

"Taylor...?"

I then looked at Emma. She was looking at me like I'd grown a second head.

"Emma," I said seriously.

"Yes?"

"Give me Haro. Now."

I stared, a wide smile on my face as I positively vibrated with excitement.

Emma stood by the camera, recording what was happening while being slack jacked, awed and terribly amused.

Dad was by the stairs, looking down with his face doing a great impression of a gaping fish at what he was witnessing.

"...Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena ¡Ehhhh Macarena! Aaay!" Haro childish voice sang, titling side to side, back and forth, flapping his earvents consistently to the beat. With his little round body, he tried to do his best to do the song's dance moves.

Meanwhile, we all watched as my newest machine danced the steps of the Macarena with perfect ease. No fuss, no wasted movements, dancing as if it were a real human.

I finally managed to speak, voice pitched high in exhilaration. "Okay Haro, I think that's enough."

"Awww," though he sound dejected, Haro obediently stopped moving. The robotic frame stopped as well, standing back up straighter. I breathed out to calm myself, even though all I wanted to was jump up and down in happiness.

"Wow," Dad said from the stairs. "I'm gone for what, twenty minutes? And I come back to you fixing the movement problem." He still looked incredulous at what he saw.

"I know right?!" Emma exploded, bouncing in place. "I was ready to run when she looked at Haro like a loon, but she grabbed him from me before I could! I was so scared that she was gonna do something crazy like tear him apart but she just started going around and picking up stuff like wires and then she-"

"What Emma is saying," I cut the excited redhead off, glaring at her. "Is that I found a solution with the finer movements and proper control response time." I pointed at Haro.

My little bot lay on the ground, hooked up with wires connecting to the now modified control module. "I was struck with inspiration when I remembered how Haro kept learning how to walk better on his own, how he kept learning to do things as time went by."

I gestured to the now stationary machine.

"I thought, what if I made Haro's learning interface handle all of movement and control problems?" I babbled on. "Haro's current database has already observed how to walk properly, his problem was his own chassis and insufficient limbs. So I just modified the control module a bit and hooked him up on it and well... Haro, make the frame walk over to me."

"Roger!" Haro's chirped, eyes flashing.

The mechanic humanoid frame did as I commanded Haro to do. The way the body walked was leagues and leagues away from the first test, now more human like and more refined in its movements. It was no longer clumsy, moving as if it were a real human, without stiffness that plagued it earlier. It stopped as it stood right in front of me, its posture looking like a man, head angled like a man.

"Squat." I said.

Haro made it do so.

"Stand up straight."

"Jump."

"Spin."

"Stop."

Again and again I commanded, and every time the frame did as I said with human like efficiency.

Of course I could still see problems, but it was the physical stuff like the joints that I needed to adjust and wiring that needed to be placed better. But Haro's learning program has fixed the movement and response time of the machine to near perfection, the most immediate problem that I needed to patch up.

"I can't believe how simple it is."I muttered to myself, incredulous at the way the conundrum had solved itself simply because of a happy-go-lucky green ball. I looked at Haro again, he was waiting for further instructions, absently flapping his vents.

"Uh Haro, can you walk him back to where he was." I told him what to do.

"Okay!" Eyes flashing, Haro made the frame return to its previous station.

"You did great, Haro." I leaned down and patted him on the head proudly. Haro looked up at me and made an appreciative sound.

"This should be enough for now." I smiled and unplugged him from the control module.

"Oh Haro, you're so awesome!" Emma immediately scooped up the little ball into her arms and spun around. She raised him upwards and chattered at him "I bet you made Mommy so proud! And you made me proud! Because you're so cute and adorable-" She babbled on and on so I tuned her off and walked over to the machine, looking it once over in approval before turning it off again.

"So Taylor," Dad started, now at foot of the basement stairs. "Think you're ready enough yet?" He asked casually, leaning against the railing with his hands.

That made me pause. I thought back on our deal, and how I was able to make my newest invention through that.

When my Dad agreed to let me become a hero, he brokered no argument that I was going to the Wards. It was my safest bet, and the local Protectorate had Armsmaster, who might even help me with stuff I build. It was a sweet deal, and I really couldn't find anything wrong with it.

But I asked him to wait, to let me do Tinker stuff on my own for just a bit. I wanted to see the limits of my capabilities within the resources allowed to me. It was a stubborn thought, but I just wanted to see how I'd do on my own. Even for just a little while.

"That's too dangerous," Dad had argued. It really was, but it irked me to think that I couldn't be anything on my own. "You're a Tinker, people _want_ you. Especially with the stuff that you could do."

Pride was what drove me to say my next word. "We'll be extra careful! I promise Dad!" I had argued.

"No, Taylor." Dad had said to me firmly, eyes hard. "We're going to the Wards. We need to make sure you're safe." I couldn't argue to the face of my father's firmness, but I tried to find a way anyway.

"Just let me do one really awesome thing." I had told him, trying to at least get away with one thing.

"Taylor, I'm your father. And I'm telling you, no."

"Please Dad, just one thing! I swear it won't take even a five days, a week tops." I had practically begged. Looking back I was being really dumb. Very dumb.

"Taylor..." Dad's eyes softened. He sighed.

"Alright fine. But let me handle getting all the stuff you need." He had consented but put conditions with it. "I have very close friends that can help me get the resources from junkyards around the docks. You, however, are not to going to be seen with them, nor are you going out with whatever you are making in plain sight."

I had nodded eagerly, agreeing to his terms."I promise, I'll be extra safe."

"One invention, that's it. And one week, that's all. We're going to the PRT once that's over, even if you didn't finish it yet. No questions asked."

I had nodded then again, no longer arguing.

"Okay Dad."

It turned out that Dad's friends were loyal dock workers who has been with him through thick and thin. As the head of hiring my father has met his fair share of different people, and he contacted the ones he trusted the most.

Despite the discreet nature of how he obtained the stuff I wanted, it only took about a day to get all the things needed. I was struck at bit by how quick it was. I had asked him how.

"Sometimes you get good people who work for you, Taylor." He had smiled then. It was very sincere smile.

That made also made me think.

Sometimes Dad would come home sad, looking frustrated. I knew it was about work. He was also the Union spokesperson, and that meant he was a voice for the people he hired. That meant he would constantly disappoint people when he couldn't get the mayor's approval for fixing the budget for the repair on the ferry, or when he couldn't improve the job growth of the Docks section in Brockton Bay.

These good people, these were the ones he'd disappoint, and yet they stayed loyal to him. I finally understood a deep part of the reason why he was so frustrated.

To honor that, I made sure that I wouldn't waste anything when I made the test unit. It took me less than a day, even between breaks that my father would force me to have.

Incidentally it seemed like my powers had attuned me to resource efficiency, as a surprising number of materials were left over. I could use those to upgrade the frame, and still have a lot left over.

Which brings me back to today.

"I just want to make a few more adjustments." I answered him truthfully.

"Hmm, I see." He watched me for a few seconds, then to the test unit."I'm really proud of you, kiddo. I just want you to know that." He nodded at the mechanic frame. "I already think it's awesome, but if you feel like it's gonna take a few more tweaks then take your time. Just remember what we talked about alright?"

"Yeah, I do. Thanks, Dad." I smiled at him, truly grateful.

"You're welcome." He smiled. "Also, be sure to get upstairs. Lunch is ready." He climbed up the stairs and was out of the basement once again.

"Emma," I called to the redhead who was busy smothering Haro with loving attention.

"Yeah?" She stopped and turned to me, blinking.

"Go upstairs and eat, tell Dad I'm just gonna clean up the mess here a bit." I told her.

"Oh, okay. Come on Haro." She carried the little ball of machinery to her chest, chatting him up as she skipped up the stairs. The sounds of their voices trailed off as they closed the basement door.

With them gone, I looked at the basement. It was a right mess, parts that I used for the machine scattered all over the floor.

My make shift work bench was littered with circuitry that I used for the bot. The computer was right next to it, having transferred it from my room here, and the keyboard was piled on by sheets of used metal. The couch had some wires on it making it the least messy, but the station of the frame was surrounded by junk.

 _Cleaning this up is gonna be hell._

I groaned, not wanting to think about it. I just actually really needed some peace quiet, and made the excuse of cleaning up a bit.

 _I'll work on that later, right now I just needed time for myself. To think._

I assessed the mechanical frame once more.

Besides what I had already observed, the frame needed work. Some joints collided a bit together and impeded movement, some wires got in the way of the limbs stretching as well as they should.

And again, the movement and control system.

Without Haro's help, this was a currently a clumsy piece of machinery. I could work on it, adjust things till it moved like how Haro made moved. That would take a lot of time, and I wasn't exactly keen on that. Dad was absolutely right, I really needed to go to the PRT, get help, be part of a team, be safe.

I didn't exactly realize how dumb I was when I begged him to wait. I imagine that the PRT might have helped me with this anyway. I was just being stupid when I said that I wanted to test myself. In the end I still got help from people, and I made Dad call in favors from the people he trusted.

 _I'm such a stupid kid._

I was actually worried there earlier, thinking to myself that I'd actually be spending more time away from the PRT because I didn't realize how much more work it would be to make the frame move right.

I'd still fulfill my part of the deal with Dad, but I'd feel woefully unsatisfied. Stupid pride.

Haro helped me a lot with that. Thank goodness, I had more time for tweaking the machine now.

Speaking of Haro, the little ball of sunshine really was my best work right now. When I made the new guy, I hadn't really thought of reusing the programming I had with Haro, it would have felt like I was just rehashing what I made. I banged up the newest model with the looming thought of a deadline in mind, and I wasn't nearly thinking as well as I should.

 _Sometimes you just have to take five and realize how many things you're doing wrong._

It was folly, from how stubborn I was with insisting on being on my own to not thinking about how useful Haro's programming could be for the new machine. I was trying to be self-important and I didn't know how many mistakes I was making and how I was being a burden instead of a boon.

I knew better now though. I sighed again.

 _This was an enlightening experience_.

Once again I looked at the machine, my little mistake that's turning out better than it should.

There was an idea in my head for alleviating the adjustments I needed to make for this test frame.

Haro was my ball of happiness and joy, and he was programmed from the beginning to be a very happy little child. He would keep learning, but in my gut I instinctively knew that he'll never grow a personality beyond that. I didn't design him to be.

But that was fine.

He was perfect the way he is, but I needed something more than that.

I looked at the control module, then to the material yet unused, ready and waiting.

I needed something to handle the controls for my new machine. And for my future inventions as well.

I looked upstairs, to the door. To where Haro was.

I needed to make a control system like Haro, one that had his programs, his learning interface. Another A.I., but one that had a personality that I needed for the task.

And I had all I needed to make it.

But, that would be for later.

I looked at the mess again, nodding to myself.

 _I'll clean this up and go upstairs, like I told them._

 _Then I'll go to work on the frame, and the new control system._

Stretching my arms, I smiled.

I picked up some junk and started to clean, eager to get to what's to come.

+++V+++

 **LATER**

It was night by the time I finished. Emma already left, and Dad was upstairs taking care of the dishes with Haro. I finished eating dinner and was now back at the basement, laboring away at my newest tech.

I adjusted my glasses as I typed away at the computer. I already downloaded Haro's database into this, thus copying all that he had learned and now I was just finishing up the new personality and brand new parameters of the latest A.I.

I decided to use Haro's design for its body. I looked at it, it was connected to the computer through wires, lifeless. It was powered like Haro, an ultra compact energy storage system that could make it last for days, rechargeable as well.

I made it look like Haro in every way, from the face to its round body to the limb design and the ports for wires that opened up on command.

The biggest difference was the newest program. I took apart the control module and put its remote programming into the new Haro lookalike model. This would serve as the new control system after all.

Other than that, it looked like Haro in every way.

Except of course, the color.

I made it red, just to distinguish him from Haro. It felt appropriate, somehow.

I went back to the screen and I made sure the algorithm for the program it was specifically made for was just right, and nodded.

"Here we go." I pressed the enter button to begin. I stared at the screen intently, watching the process. I put the new model on my lap.

 **...Systems start.**

 **...Checking internal processor.**

 **...Internal processing systems cleared**

 **...Routing server pathways**

 **...Connecting to online database**

 **...loading program preferences**

 **...receiving data packs**

 **...downloading acquired data**

 **...confirming system parameters**

 **...all systems cleared**

 **Beginning upload of artificial intelligence interface:**

 **C** **reative**

 **H** **yper**

 **A** **ction**

 **R** **esponse**

... **Upload complete**

"And there we go!" I cheered at the screen. I picked up the new machine on my lap, stand from my seat and holding it up.

When before its eyes had shown no signs of life, this time they flashed a bright yellow color along with its mouth. It's eyes flashed a few times, like it was blinking, and then it tested out its ear-vents, its tiny arms and its makeshift feet, before turning back to a ball again. It's eyes had stilled, like Haro's when he was quiet.

"Hey there, little guy." I greeted my new invention warmly.

It's yellow eyes flashed again, once.

"Hello..." He answered back, and unlike Haro his voice was more mature.

"I'm Taylor, by the way. I made you." Smiling, I set him down on work bench. He titled himself in every direction, as if he was testing himself. Finally, he settled back down and looked up to me.

"Greetings, Taylor." He greeted me again, more formally. "Or shall I address you as Creator?" He asked me respectfully, ear vents flapping.

I waved my hand at that. "Nah, just call me Taylor. Haro does it." I paused at that. "Though he's been calling me Mommy because of what Emma said..." I trailed off.

"Mommy?" The red Haro paused at that, looking down. "Mother?"

"Ah, no!" I waved my hands frantically. "That's just something stupid Emma said because I made Haro and it technically made me his mom! Don't use it!"

The little bot looked at me for a few seconds, then flapped his ears.

"Okay, Taylor." He sounded amused, yet there was a hint of something else I couldn't quite place.

"Ehem." I coughed into my first. I walked up to the test body and pressed the switch to boot it up.

I turned back to the red Haro

"So, buddy." I started, saying buddy in place of a name I hadn't thought of yet. "Do you know what I made you for?" I asked him.

The little bot flashed his eyes and mouth.

"Affirmative." He started, tone formal and like that of a soldier. "I am the Creative Hyper Action Response A.I. Unit, designed to manage and control machinery of your creation. I am programmed to administrate action response time for finer movements and progressively learn the process of being more human-like in finer control, thus my Creative algorithm. I am to gather data at all times, and simulate them during immediate the need." He finished, ear flaps moving.

"Yep." I gave him a thumps up. I then patted the machine beside me. "So, do you wanna try making this guys arms move?" I asked.

He looked at me once more, and then again at the test unit. His eyes flashed. "Connections, set."

After saying that, he made the arms move up and back down. Flawlessly, just like Haro

"How about the legs?" I asked next, tone carefully neutral but inside I was incredibly giddy.

He made each leg go up and down at a time. He did so deliberately, knowing if he made both go up at same time the machine would fall down. He already learned what Haro learned.

"Now, can you make it walk over there?" I tried to push down my excitement as I pointed to a certain spot.

The little bot made the test unit walk to the specified spot, just as perfectly and as humanlike as Haro.

"Well, how about making it go back over here?"

Turning it back around, the little red Haro moved the machine back to its original spot.

I beamed at him with pride. "That was great!"

"Thank you, Taylor." His tone was sincerely grateful, even though it was robotic.

"Well, it looks like you can do I everything I made you to do! Perfect!" I went over and patted him on the head, but inside I was howling with joy. It worked! My new A.I. totally worked!

 _And this time I actually made him while I was lucid! Haha!_

"Will there be anything else, Taylor?" Red Haro said, his tone curious.

Actually...

"I haven't gotten you a name yet, have I?" I absently stroked his head like I would Haro. He flapped his ear vents like him too, though more subdued.

I couldn't keep calling him Red Haro, because he wasn't like Haro in personality at all.

And calling him Red is a bit too simple.

My eyes drifted back to the computer screen, where his primary function was written out

 **C** **reative**

 **H** **yper**

 **A** **ction**

 **R** **esponse**

Oh.

Of course. "I got it!"

It was so simple, I rolled my eyes at myself and picked him up. I held him at arms length, and gave him big smile.

"Welcome to the world, Char!"

+++V+++

So, hi there. If you're new to this story, then I bid you a hearty welcome, and a big thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoy the rest of the story that I've already written.

If you've been here before, then welcome back. And I think that you'll notice that it's a lot bigger than it used to be.

Well the reason for that is very simple: I've combined the prologue with the first 2 chapters, and have decided to edit the rest of my other chapters as well.

My reason's are the following:

1\. The prologue really felt like it had no impact, and looking back it was stale and didn't really make for an interesting prologue.

2\. The other 2 chapters were left off at a weird place, and really needed to be combined to actually feel like a real chapter.

And so, we have this new, combined and partly revised version.

I am also going to rename this simply as Prologue: The Origin. I hope that clarifies what's happened to the other 2 chapters.

And also I hope you enjoyed this just as you had before.

And as always, please leave a review, I wanna know what you think of the changes, and if you're new, I wanna know what you think of my story.


	2. Chapter 2

+++Origin 0.1.1 +++

I excitedly climbed up the stairs with Char in my arms. I wanted to introduce him to the family as soon as possible.

"-I told you we've tried! Every time I've talked to the mayor it's always about the budget, he keeps saying that-" Just as I reached the door I heard my fathers' voice, trying to keep a modicum of control on his temper.

I stopped. I heard Char's questioning beep at the sudden arrest of movement, and I put a finger on my lips as I looked down as a gesture of silence.

I was eavesdropping on Dad which meant I had to be quiet. I knew it was wrong, but a big part of me needed to hear this. Dad would sometimes talk about work, but he never tells me about the frustrating side of it. I would hear hints of it every now and then, but he's never directly told me how bad it was.

This time I had the chance to actually hear what's wrong with work, and I took it.

I leaned forward and put my ear against the door to hear better.

"-we've done everything to convince him that the ferry needs to be fixed, and it's always the same." My father's tone was lower now, sounding calmer than before. There was anger there though, controlled and directed not at the other person, but at the situation.

"The ferry just isn't fitted in to the budget, he says. The situation hasn't changed that much, and we've tried so hard to turn this around. You know that-" He was cut off by the other voice at the end, who spoke loud enough that I could hear the anger.

There was a pause. A very long pause.

And then, my Dad spoke. His tone was low, controlled. Yet he still simmered with an unmistakable cold fury.

"If you somehow think that I'm not qualified for this anymore then go right ahead. I've been in this fight for as long as you had and if you think I can't make the punches we need then throw in the towel and pull me out."

Danny Hebert said those last words as a man who's fought for as long as he could and as hard as he could. Tired, weary, yet still fighting the fight that he's been losing for so long. I know that it's not in him to give this up. This is something he's devoted himself to, one he's actually been driven by.

He was Union spokesperson, a voice to men and women working to feed their families. He needed to find a way to make things better for them by communicating with the higher ups and reaching out to the governing bodies.

I always heard that Dad would talk to the local government for help, and I've never heard him say anything positive about it. I've seen the look of exhaustion on his face. He never said to me how bad it actually was, only that he was trying to get them to help, and that one day he'll hopefully find a concession with them.

I never thought it would be this bad. He has desired to change the situation at the Dock Workers Association for what seemed like a lifetime. He's been met by disappointing results all of this time and yet he still tried.

My father went silent after saying his piece. It lingered for a while, until I faintly heard the muffled sounds from the other side of the door, presumably from whomever he was speaking to on the phone. After a while, my father sighed. When spoke again he was much calmer.

"...I know, it's hard. I know, I know, I understand. Yes, we're not enemies here. We're both trying to get this patched up. It's frustrating but we can't give up. Not on these people."

 _"Sometimes you get good people who work for you, Taylor."_

That's what he said to me.

That's the reason he keeps trying. Keeps fighting.

 _For the good people._

I leaned away from the basement door, my desire to listen gone. I heard a few more noises from the phone, and I couldn't exactly hear what my father said anymore, but the lull of his voice was one of a lowering crescendo, the ending of a conversation.

I waited for the sound of the phone being put back down the handle, and then to my father's quiet footsteps. I then silently turned the handle of the door and opened it, exiting the basement with a somber feeling.

I always thought that, as bad as things were, Dad would pull through. That somehow he'd find a way to make due. That the people he was helping was behind him all the way.

I never thought that the situation would be so bad that an argument would lead to my Dad resigning his post as spokesperson. Even if it didn't happen, the fact that my dad told whoever that was on the other side of the phone that he would step down because they think he can't do it anymore was jarring.

I peeked into the dining area, trying to be subtle in observing my father sitting at the dining table.

A hand was on his face, fingers pinching the bridge of his noise as he leaned his elbow on the table with his eyes closed.

Right then and there, without anyone to see him, without his daughter to force him to look stronger than he felt, and with only the silence of the room to accompany him, my father looked absolutely _exhausted._

 _And I could take a guess why._

His wife was dead, the situation at the docks wasn't getting any better and now his daughter was cape trying to get herself into trouble by being a damn hero. Any man would have already sit this one out and stopped trying anymore. They would have told their daughter to shut up and keep their head down, to stop being a damn idiot. They would have quit being a Union spokesperson and just be the head of hiring who sat at his desk telling people they couldn't get a job, and doing nothing about it.

 _I'm part of his problem and all I'm doing is making more._

I hugged Char a bit tighter, once again feeling regret at how stupid I've been the last few days.

 _God if I could just find a way to help him..._

"Taylor?" I was snapped from my thoughts by my father's voice. I saw him looking at me, maybe realizing that I had just seen him looking like he was really bushed.

He coughed into his fist. "So you do mind explaining what you have there?" He was now looking pointedly at the round red ball I was cradling in my arms.

"Oh." I had already forgotten the actual reason for coming out of the basement. I held Char up, pointing his face at Dad. "This is Char, I wanted to show him to you."

"Greetings," said Char, with a very polite and mature tone. My Dad raised an eyebrow at him, likely not expecting how different he sounded from the similar looking Haro.

"Hello!" Speaking of the little ball of joy, there he was now, rolling in from the living room to greet us. He kept rolling until he hit my father's leg. My father looked away from me and at Haro, smiling.

"Greetings to you too, Char." My father turned his smile at me and Char. "I'm sorry I stared, you just looked so much like this guy," he gestured at Haro, who was rolling around aimlessly. "That I expected you to sound the same."

"Yeah, that would be my fault." I held onto Char with one hand so I could scratch the back of my head sheepishly. " I didn't think of making him look different from Haro, I just immediately went to coding his program features which lead to setting up his parameters then after that I needed to create an individual personality settings apart from Haro's before I realized that I didn't actually know what body kind of body I should give him. I guess I got lazy and just redid Haro's design." I gave Dad an embarrassed smile, and then at Char. "Sorry about that buddy, at least I made you red! That makes you look a bit different, right?"

"I am satisfied with the current body that houses me and my program," Char responded to my apology with a small flap of his ears, like it was a gesture to assure me. "And I quite like the red. It is a rather fetching choice of color." He added in, digital voice soothing and smooth.

Hmm, another big difference between him and Haro. Whilst Haro was innocent, naive and had that childlike wonder, Char was worlds away. Suave and charming, Char was a gentleman stuck in a cute round robotic ball.

"Well now, that's new." Dad said with an amused quirk on his lips. "He might be younger than Haro but he sure doesn't sound like it." He then looked at me with raised brow. "Is he supposed to sound like a ladies' man?"

"A ladies man?" I asked, titling my head. Did he sound like that?

"Taylor I've met a lot of people in my life, and I gotta tell you Char sound like a man that's out to break a lot of women's hearts."

"That is not part of my primary function, as interesting as it may sound." Char responded, yellow eyes flashing. "Although I could perhaps learn to do that one day. Sound like fun." He quipped the last line in with a curious tone.

"No!" I reprimanded him immediately, frowning. "That's not a nice thing to do!"

"I believe I was doing what most people say, 'kidding around.'" He now took on a more amused tone, and I frowned even harder when my Dad guffawed, like my invention making me look like an idiot was somehow the funniest thing in the world.

 _How did I make you such a smartass?_

Ugh, this is worst than Haro always siding with Emma instead of me.

"Kidding around~" Haro bumped into leg and looked up at me. "Play?"

"Oh." I forgot to introduce Haro to his newest brother. "I almost forgot. Char, this is Haro."

"A pleasure." Char twisted in my arm to look at Haro, who was looking up at him curiously.

"Haro, say hi to Char!" I told him.

"Hi!" Haro immediately obeyed. I smiled and then decided to set Char down next to Haro.

Now that they were both at the floor, they stared at each other.

There was a period of silence.

I blinked at that.

 _Was there something wrong?_

I kept on worrying as they just looked at each other silently, until finally Haro said:

"Play?"

"... Sure."

If he had a mouth, I'm sure Char would smile. Like a man entertaining a child.

"Yay!" Haro bounced, then rolled. "Over here~!"

Haro lead Char over to the living room, who paused for just a second before following.

"Huh. That was something else." Dad observed, seeing the same things I saw. He was frowning a bit. "For a moment there I thought they wouldn't like each other."

"Yeah." I nodded absently, looking to where they were. "I was worried about that too." I saw Haro playing with Char, bouncing and rolling around.

"So, kiddo." My attention returned to Dad, looking at me with curiously. "Why the new bot?"

"Oh, I made him so he could operate the test frame." I explained. "Haro has some of his capabilities but I designed Char specifically to help me with the movement and controls, so that means he can do more on that end than Haro can."

"And the personality?"

"Oh that, well I wanted something to make him more unique. I didn't want to just rehash Haro's characteristics, that would be kind lame." I waved my hand at that, I honestly thought it would be better to have a more mature A.I. to handle the things I'm about to try.

"Hmm, makes sense I guess."He accepted what I said with a hum and a nod of agreement. Dad then asked me: "Will you be staying up late again?"

"Eh, might be." I replied. "I might just do a few more tweaks to the test unit before I'm finally satisfied. I can't tell you how long that would take, 'cuz I dunno myself."

"Ah. It's going along great right?" He sounded genuinely curious. "You made it _dance_ Taylor, I'm sure that's a good sign yeah?"

"Yeah, it is." I agreed. "I think I might be ready to go after I finish up a few things on it."

"Oh!" My father smiled then, looking genuinely surprised. "So that means...?" He leaned his head forward a bit, looking eager for what I'll say next.

"Yes, Dad." I laughed a bit as he breathed out a relieved sigh. "I'm about ready to go."

I then thought for a second, remembering what I saw right before I introduced Char. At how I came to build my test unit and my new A.I.

"Actually, I wanna ask you a favor." I said, an idea forming in my head.

"Oh, sure. What is it?"

"Can you bring me to work tomorrow?"

His eyebrows rose, surprised. "Why?"

I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "I just wanted to see the people who helped me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I nodded purposefully, showing him I was serious.

"Well, if you really want to..."He still looked dubious, but I guess he thought there was nothing wrong with it.

"Thanks Dad."

I was a problem child, that's for sure. But if I could find a way to help my father then I will damn well take it.

+++V+++

The next day saw me and Dad at his workplace. We made doubly sure that Haro and Char was safe with the test unit back in the house, and just in case I had a phone that Char could contact me through should anything happen. My dad showed me around a little bit once we got there, and told me to stay put once he went to take a call from his office.

I immediate set off to my objective with a determined stride.

A looming shape entered my field of vision, and I stopped once I was close enough.

I observed it with a critical eye.

The state of the ferry was what one would expect out of something that hasn't been in operation for more than a decade. It was loaded by the ferry house with no small measure of rust settling all around its hull and some barnacles clinging upon its frame. The deck was a mess, the floors full of holes and the wood already eaten by the termites. Judging by the perpetually creaking sound it was honestly ready to collapse. The dock members have tried to do a semblance of maintenance on this broken ship, but besides the occasional clean up there was honestly nothing they could do with the money they have. The biggest problems were the engine that no longer runs and was outdated for use in today's standards, though with constant maintenance and care it would have been usable, but that's already well and past. The fuel intakes needed work, the oil set up made it so that the need for constant refuel was a necessity but that no longer matters. The turbines were in a terrible state, looking like it was about to fall off and not ready to be spun anymore.

There was no legitimate way that this could be brought back from what it once was without a big enough budget.

Something that they could get from the local government, which has always denied of it longer than my Dad has been in office.

It was little wonder why people called trying to get it back up a pipe dream.

It was an absolute wreck.

But I could absolutely fix it.

 _And make it so much better than before._

"...hull can be fixed with enough better material...engines need the most work, something to power this thing better...replace the outdated model...powering won't take too much, the fuel systems can be revamped..."

I thought I could perhaps just look this over and see what I could help with it, but it turns out I could probably overhaul this whole set up and fix it in a way that it would sustain top form without too much help...

"..aylor...?"

"...could probably find a way to make hull more durable and still keep it lightweight..." Might need something more than current resources that I can afford. The problem is definitely the resources I needed, but my brain had already racked up ideas to save enough with the supplies the docks currently had.

"...re you okay...iddo?"

"...just gonna need to put realign bow and stern without since they're atrociously out of form...turbine needs to be completely replaced, probably gonna recycle stuff from it to save more..." If maybe the people here help me I could get the resources needed to get this thing back in to working shape and keep working from there. Keep giving this ferry upgrades until such time that little maintenance would be needed and it would still run after decades of use.

"Taylor!"

A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my dazed babble.

"Huh?"I looked over to the owner of the hand and found my father gazing at me worryingly.

"Taylor, are you alright?"

"I'm fine Dad." I replied quickly.

"Are you really?" His brows creased. "I told you to stay put and then suddenly you were gone, Taylor. You could have gotten lost here." He reprimanded, frowning.

"I'm sorry," I bowed my head in apology, sincerely ashamed. In my eagerness to seek out the ferry I had forgotten that my father would get worried once he didn't see me where he last left me.

"Just," he sighed out, "Don't do that again, okay? You know how things are now, I'm get scared whenever I think about what could happen to you." He put the hand on my should to my head, patting me.

"Okay Dad." I mumbled out, head still bowed. "I'll be good."

Speaking of being good. "Uh, can you let me see the people who got us the supplies now?"

"I was just thinking about that too, actually." He smiled, taking me by the shoulder. "Come on, let's go meet them."

+++V+++

The people at the docks were mostly men of the burly, muscular, and rough edged kind, dressed ruggedly and ready for a day of manual labor. My father stood out among them, from the way he was dressed to the way he talked.

Despite this, he was greeted warmly by the people he passed. Given that he was the head of hiring and Union spokesperson, it wasn't surprising to see that people were nice to my dad even with how different he looked.

People were looking very busy, lots of them were carrying crates around and putting them somewhere else. Others were load stuff on big containers, and other were rolling trolleys around with big boxes on them. Everywhere I looked people worked.

"Ah here they are." My dad said as we approached a familiar heavy set man carrying a crate accompanied by a woman with a trolley, who despite her size looked even burlier than my father.

I knew who they were. My father's friend Kurt, and his wife, Lacey.

"Danny! What brings you here this early?" Kurt immediately clapped the shoulders of my father with his huge hands once he was close enough, laughing loudly. He then noticed me, trailing behind Dad.

"Taylor?" He smiled even wider, big teeth showing through his bushy beard.

"What a surprise! What are you doing here, wasting a nice winter day with your old man? "He clapped Dad lightly again, joking. "You should be out with friends, enjoying...your...vacation..." He stopped talking suddenly, upbeat tone dropping as his face adopted a look like he remembered something important.

"Ya just had to open yer' big mouth." Lacey put a hand on her hips and looked at his husband with a disapproving frown. She shook her head. "Can't think for a second before you say stupid stuff."

 _Seems like he just remembered about what happened to Mom._

"Ah damn." He cursed at himself, taking his hands away from my dad. "Sorry, Danny." He brought a muscular arm up and scratched the back of his head, sincerely looking embarrassed for his insensitivity.

"It's okay Kurt," Dad waved away the apology, not at all looking like he was affected, "I've been friends with you long enough to know you were joking." He swept an arm over my shoulder, pulling me close. "Taylor just wanted to see how my job was going, it's why she's here."

"Yeah, wanted to spend some time with Dad." I shrugged casually. "Sometimes I'm worried he might bury himself into work too much he might not come home." I took a jab at being funny.

Judging from the way they stared, I was not successful. "...I was just kidding?"

"Ahaha, you don't need ta' worry about that baby." Lacey assured me with a smile. "Me and Kurt would make sure he came back home to you safely."

"Danny ain't going nowhere Taylor." Kurt was nodding, muscular arms crossed. "He'll be safe every night, the boys here wouldn't let anything happen to him." He used his head to point out the people working around us, people who my father helped get a job.

"Thanks Kurt," I say with the utmost sincerity. "I'm glad to know my Dad has good people looking out for him." I leaned into my Dad, and he gave me a squeeze.

"Aw shucks baby, you'll make me blush."

I smiled at them, genuinely happy to know they were part of my father's life. He really did have good people he could trust, good friends who had his back.

"Hey Kurt! Why is your fatass taking so fucking long!" Another familiar voice shouted, grabbing our attention. A man with a wild hair style was briskly walking up to us, tattooed all over. "That dumbass crate didn't even look so heav-oh Danny, the fuck are you doing here this early?" His thick eyebrows raised in surprise when he saw my father.

"Hello to you too, Alexander." My father greeted the man dryly, who looked a bit younger than him and Kurt. "And I really appreciate that you're using that kind of language in front of my daughter."

That made Alexander do a double take and finally see me there pressed against my Dad. I waved, smiling amusedly at him.

"Ah, hell." Alexander put a hand on his face and dragged it across, embarrassed. He looked sheepishly at Dad.

"Sorry about that Danny, it just feels like it's gonna be a long day again." He sighed out, scratching his head. "And hey there, Taylor." He smiled at me, though it looked weary.

"Hi, Alexander." I smiled back lightly.

"Is there something wrong?"Dad then asked him, taking on a more professional tone. Alexander sighed again, figure slumped.

"It's just the same old shi- I mean the same old stuff."

"What? Some of them whining cuz I ain't there?" Kurt spoke up, frowning. "Couldn't they wait another second? I was just talking to Danny, ain't like I was leaving them all the work. They know I ain't like that."

"I know you aren't, but they just gotta complain about the simplest of sh- cra-I mean they complained about the small things." Alexander caught himself again from cussing out in front of me, but I got what he was trying to say.

"Do they do that all the time?" I ask, frowning at that thought.

"They don't, not really." Dad said to me, patting my shoulder. "Sometimes they just get fed up though." He shook his head at that, a lips upturned in a frown.

"Real hard not to," Kurt scowled, crossing his arms. "They do so much heavy lifting and they get paid worth jack. People feel underappreciated." He huffed out, annoyed.

I thought about that. The Docks have been slowly rotting off for years now and the people here were left to scrape by with menial jobs that don't really pay all that much. A lot of them just go to gangs and get recruited. Basically they become grunts, but with better pay than what they used to have.

A life of crime rewarded them better than real honest work.

 _All because the people who can help aren't actually doing it. All they had to do was help them fix the stupid ferry. How hard is that?_

Getting the ferry fixed would open so many opportunities for these people, they just needed the money and right kind of help to do it.

"Guys, I'm thinkin' maybe we shouldn't be talking about stuff like these in front of Taylor." Lacey put a hand on Kurt's arm and looked pointedly at the other men.

"Oh right." Kurt suddenly realized that he may have said too much while I was there. He made a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it. Leave this stuff about work to the grownups. You just go worry about being a kid, and getting your next homework done or somethin'" He gave me toothy grin, one which I returned.

"Okay," I agreed simply, but I had looked up at Dad and saw that he was giving me a look. He knew I was already thinking about these things, why I was asking about the problems that were going on around me.

 _It's because of what I plan to be. Something he's already agreed to._

I gave him a reassuring smile, titling my head. He closed his eyes at that, breathing out through his nose. He opened his eyes again and returned my smile, before look back to the others.

 _I promise I'll help Dad. I promise I'll make things better._

"Well we better be goin' Danny." Kurt told us, patting Lacey on the shoulder and walking to where Alexander had come from. He patted me on the head as he passed. "It was nice seeing you Taylor."

"Hope to see you more, baby." Lacey leaned down and hugged then quickly followed her husband, rolling the trolley along.

"See ya later," Alexander already had his back to us but was waving one hand in farewell, other hand in his pocket.

"Yeah, see you!" I shouted to their retreating forms, waving. "So did all of them help with the supplies?" I quietly asked, so I wouldn't be heard by the other people.

"Yep," Dad answered back just as quietly. "Others too, but I don't think you should go see them right now. Maybe later when it's not as busy." I looked around at that, seeing the people bustle about.

"I guess so." I gave him an absentminded nod, still looking around. Everyone here worked, everyone here tried their best to live in a shitty situation.

 _And I have the ability to help them, makes things better._

What kind of hero would I be if I didn't take that chance?

"Dad?"

"Yeah?" He looked at me, curious.

"Can we go to your office, I want to about something."

"Sure, I needed to go back there now anyway."

He lead along with an arm around my shoulder, as I thought about what I was going to say.

 _Just gotta ease him into the idea and it'll be fine, I'm sure._

+++V+++

"What?" I sat there at his office, flabbergasted by what he just said.

"I said no."

I gawked at my father.

"But I told you I can fix it-" I was cut off by Dad.

"And I said, no." My father repeated, sitting across from me in his office table chair with a very stern look on his eyes. "This isn't up for discussion anymore, Taylor."

"But why not?!" I shouted at him, unable to keep my voice down. I just told you I can help with your dream! I can help these people you've been aching to help for years!

 _Why aren't you letting me!?_

"Taylor, this might look very simple to you, but what you want to do is not at all something I or the company can easily allow." Dad massaged the bridge of his nose, breathing out a deep sigh. "The ferry is a valuable asset that can help us once fixed, and we have to go through legal means to do that." Dad looked at me in the eyes as he said this, his posture that of a professional that's been doing this for years. "It's the reason why I've gone through the local government to get something done. The only other option would be to be sponsored by a company rich enough, legally established and permitted by the government that would be willing to dole out the kind of money we need for repairing it, and there hasn't been anyone in Brockton Bay that has fit that criteria." His brows creased a bit at this, as if he's been saying this a million times and it still doesn't sit right with him.

This is bullshit! How hard was it to just let me do this and just fix the damn thing! I opened my mouth and protested. "But that's not fair! I could just-!

"Taylor," My father cut me off again, this time a lot more firmly. "Right now you're an unknown Tinker. No one knows who you are, and no one knows your affiliation. When they come to question us who and what means were taken to repair the ferry, the people will defer to you. And because no one is going back you on your credibility besides us, and the fact that you had modified the ferry without the permission from anyone of legal worth, would lead the _PRT,_ " He stressed this part by pausing a second. "To come in personally because of a Parahuman intervention and take the ferry to _impound_ it."

My jaw dropped at that. The thought of the ferry being taken away just because I fixed it without the PRT's permission slammed me back down to earth.

"...is that what would really happen?" I asked him quietly, cowed down by the thought that by trying to fix things I made things worse.

"The PRT is obliged to do it, because it's a huge deal that the ferry had just been altered by a Tinker who they do not trust." Dad wore a neutral expression on his face but I knew he was not pleased with what he was saying. "It could be a danger to the public, and it's their job to make sure Parahuman disasters are kept in check to keep the people safe."

Dad didn't like look like he wanted so say these things. But I knew he was doing it because it was the reality of what would happen if I just took it upon myself to do something like this without thinking about what it would look like to the PRT and the local government.

I slumped in my seat, feeling worn out. All those plans to help these people, and I couldn't do it because the stupid bureaucracy. I groaned.

"It's not like I'm doing this to hurt people Dad. You know that." I complained to him, glowering. "I'm doing this to _help_."

"Kiddo, you don't know how happy I am that you want to help the docks out."The side of my father's lips quirked upward, a warm look in his eyes. "Believe me, your heart is in the right place. I'll even be honest, I'm thrilled to know that you can help fix the ferry."

"But legal bullshit just want to get in the way of that." I scowled, slumping into my seat further.

"Sometimes it just works that way Taylor." My father sighed. "If we had it our way I would have let you fix that ferry in a heartbeat. It would fix so many problems here at the docks."

My scowl deepened, realizing that even with my power it's just going to be some stupid people getting in the way and not letting me help the people that I can.

"You wanted to do this for years, why can't it just be simple..." I mumbled out, feeling the frustration growing at the pit of my stomach.

It just wasn't fair.

 _What good were my powers if I couldn't help the most important person in my life?_

The reality of the situation crashed down on me.

I felt the back of my eyes sting.

 _Why can't I just help my Dad's dream come true!?_

"Taylor." I looked up and saw my father looking at me with sad eyes. My eyes began to water, because I realize how much he might actually want this but couldn't have it. "I don't want you to feel like you've failed me in anyway. It isn't your fault that sometimes legal matters just prevent you from doing what you want." He told me, then held out his hand. There was a handkerchief on top of his palm.

I leaned forward to take it, wiping the cloth at my eyes. I sniffed. "It just isn't _fair_." I complained once again, eyes still teary.

"If I let you just do what you want with your power, without the thought of what would happen to other people that would be affected by this, then I'd just be a man that's just using his daughter for her power."

My father's statement made me look at him again, and what I saw was a man that was shouldering the weight of what seemed like a thousand responsibilities. The weight of being the voice of a lot people, the weight of doing the right thing, the weight of being a good man, the weight of being a good _father._

It was all I could do not to cry then and there.

I failed.

I would later feel my father's arms come around me later, comforting me and dabbing at my tears.

That would only serve to make me feel even worse. Because I knew he wanted to do the same thing but he had to be strong.

 _For me._

My sobs and my father's voice were the only sound in the office for a good while.

+++V+++

I felt dejected, depression settling heavily in my gut. I sat the passenger seat as Dad drove us home looking at the late afternoon scenery passing by. We needed to drive through the docks to get home, and seeing the shitty houses, ruined streets, and abandoned warehouses just made me feel all the worse.

The rest of the day had blurred by, as I sat by my Dad's office dazed and upset. I had a view of the ferry house from the window there, clearly seeing the goal I thought to achieve. Sometimes people would enter my dad's office only to come out looking sadder than when they came in.

The thought that I could have helped them just burrowed me deeper into depression.

I sighed unhappily, but tried not to think about it. The drive had taken us to a safer route, one with the more reputable streets that had lower gang activity. My dad had metal bat stored by the foot of the passenger seat just in case someone ever tried something though.

I looked over to him, assessing him. Dad was silently concentrating on the road, a passive expression on his face. He tried to open a conversation a few times, but I was too miserable to try and go along with them. He understood quickly that I wasn't in a talkative mood and kept to himself. I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't have it in me right now to be Taylor the happy new Tinker kid.

I looked down at my hand. I still held the handkerchief he gave me earlier, crumpled now from the way I held on to it. He gave me that because I cried again, like a little baby who could get what she wanted.

 _Some hero I'm turning out to be._

I sighed, looking back out the window, back to the passing scenery.

Something caught my eye up ahead.

On the side of the street a woman had her head down and was walking briskly with her bag set tightly on her arm. With her was a little girl, looking no older than seven, whom she clutched tightly with her hand as she pulled her hurriedly along.

I could clearly see why.

Just a few meters behind her were three men leaning on the sidewalk rails. Undeniably Asian, they were observing the lady and her child with malignant smirks on their faces. Wearing red and green colors clothes to signify their gang, they waited until she and her child entered an alley before they moved, following her.

Dad drove the truck by that scene, having no idea what was about to transpire because he was too focused on the road.

I did though.

I happened often enough. Especially here in this part of town.

 _Innocent bystander gets mugged. Raped. Drugged._

 _Killed._

 _News at eleven._

It happened here so often that even the local news would gloss over such an event and move on to the next bad news.

And here I was just watching as it happened again.

Taylor Hebert, the girl who's new powers just kept making trouble for her dad.

Taylor Hebert, the girl who couldn't even help her dad's dream come true even when she can.

Taylor Hebert, the girl that couldn't help anyone even with the things she could do.

 _And now Taylor Hebert, the girl who just watched a woman and her child possibly die._

Something snapped in me. I felt my world slow down.

I was moving before I realized what I was doing.

The handkerchief that used to be in my hand was already covering my face when I leaned down to take the metal bat at the foot of my seat.

"DAD STOP THE TRUCK!" I shouted at him urgently.

"Wha-"

"NOW!"

He quickly stepped on the break, but I didn't wait for him to fully stop before I launched out the door and through the sidewalk.

Dad hadn't driven us far enough that I needed too far to get to the alley.

When I got there, what I saw was exactly what I had envisioned.

The woman was down at the ground, curled up over her child who was clutching on to her in tears. They were shivering in fear as the gang members surrounded them, one of them already had her bag in his hand.

"Please," Her voice was trembling from the fear, "Just take the bag and let us go, I don't have anything else to give you."

"Oh lady, I think you know just what else you can give us." One of them sneered, looking at her like a piece of meat. She trembled harder, and her little girl sobbed cried even louder.

"Shut that little bitch up if you know what's good for her!" Another one shouted at her, and kicked her hard at her side.

She cried out in pain, a sharp racking noise that echoed slightly in the alley.

I think that was when I moved.

"Yeah bitch you-"

Whatever the third guy was going to say never finished, for he had the unfortunate luck of having his back to me.

I had dashed in and used my momentum to slam the bat hard at the back of his head.

There was a loud crack as the hard metal met flesh and bone before the hooligan slumped down, clearly unconscious.

"What the fu-"

"You little shit!"

Being closest to me, the gang member that kicked the woman lashed out, moving in to strangle me with his arms out wide.

I ducked down to avoid it, and as I felt his hands pass by my head I stabbed the bat firmly into his solar plexus.

"Oof."He grunted as he drew back in pain, but I gave him no time once he put his arms on his middle before I dunked on his head hard with the metal bat clutched tightly with both of my hands, strengthening the blow.

He went down faster than the other guy did.

My senses flared.

 _Danger!_

I had leaned away from the knife slashing at me before it could cut me.

The last member of the goons had a knife out, bloody murder clear in his eyes. He was snarling at me, poised to fight unlike the other two.

With a yell he rushed at me, knife ready in his right hand. "I'll fucking kill you bitch!" He shouted.

 _It's going to come swinging from the left._

I dodged slightly to the right. The blade passed harmlessly by, cutting through nothing.

 _He'll bring it across, trying to surprise me._

I leaned back and away from the slash he followed up with, hearing another swish as it sliced through the air.

 _He's going for a stab now, he'll try to get at my eyes._

And just as he did, I ducked into his guard to dodge his stab, swinging the metal bat upward to the side of his face and struck him across from there with enough power to put his lights out.

Blood spurted out from his nose as he was spun away and knocked down on the ground, unconscious just like the others.

With no one left to fight, I then looked over at the mother and child hobbled on the ground, watching me with wide eyes.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked in concern.

"Y-yeah." Her voice still trembling, she nodded. She and her daughter still looked at me with wide eyed expressions.

I looked at the bodies on the ground, all knocked out and I was sure they wouldn't get up soon.

"You guys should get out of here." I said to them, still looking at the goons. I picked up the bag from the first gang member I knocked out and offered it back to her.

"T-Thank you." She took the bag back with shaking hands and quickly stood on waning legs, taking her child in her arms. "Thank you so much!" She cried out before running away with her daughter clutched tight to her chest.

Her daughter had looked over her mother's shoulder to stare at me all the way to the end of the alley.

"Taylor!" I heard Dad voice, and I looked over to the other end of the alley to find him standing there.

I wonder what it must have looked.

His daughter was standing in the middle of banged up thugs, a metal bat clutched in hand.

I blinked once.

Then twice.

I looked at the ground to see the gangsters again, all incapacitated by my hand.

 _I... did this?_

I felt a hand tug at my arm, and I was roughly pulled along. I was still looking at the bodies.

"Come on!" My dad's voice reached my ears. "Let's get out of here before any more of them get here."

My head bobbed down in agreement, but I was still transfixed at what I had done.

As I sat at the passenger seat in a daze, with my father driving us away quickly from the scene, I realize that I might be more than just a Tinker.

I never really noticed the dark shape from the rooftops that slinked away into the shadows, melding into them

+++V+++

So I heard you guys just might actually like this story. So here you go, just for you. Another chapter right out of the oven, all 7k words worth.

As always, read and review. Reviews are love, Reviews are life. feeeed meeee

Oh before I forget, I haven't thought of her cape name yet. Leave me some suggestions and I'll look them over and see which one I like the most.

Edit: As of May 3, 2017 this shall now be known as 0.1.1 instead of 0.1.3


	3. Chapter 3

Whoa, you guys are awesome! So many follows and favorites, I guess you might actually want this story to stick around.

Your responses have inspired me, and this chapter came out more quickly that I thought because of that. Thank you

Now, onto the chapter!

+++Origins 0.1.2+++

"Char, could you make him move his arm a little? About sixty degrees?" I requested while I adjusted a few joints under the test frame's 'armpit' with a cross point screw driver.

"Certainly." Sitting still on the work bench, Char's eyes flashed as he did as I requested, easing the arm up in just the right way.

"Thanks!" I made sure the bolt close to arm wiring was tightened in, to prevent collision within and impede movement. I nudged it a few times to make sure it didn't budge.

"Aaand we're done!" I crowed.

I stepped back to get a better view of the whole frame, feeling proud of how far it's come.

Where once before it was a thin skeletal frame that stood only an inch below the five feet mark, now it was standing proudly past five foot five inches, as tall as I was. I had given it more gray metal plating all around, covering the wirings up and making it look bulkier in comparison to its former look. The additional plating on the feet had given it a few inches, and the hands had changed from looking less like skeletal fingers to more like an armored glove. The torso down to the hips were now more enlarged, and was now as wide as my whole body.

My newest addition to the whole frame was the new head. It had been remodeled entirely, for it no longer just had the single lens camera that served as its only way to see. With a dome shaped cranium that was covered in gray metal plates and a thicker neck to support it, it now looked more like a human skull except for the eyes. I decided to make the lens more independent from the head movement, and now the single lens could move side to side without the assistance of the whole head.

"Alright Char, let's get to some testing!" I clapped my palms and rubbed them together, excited to get the results.

"Affirmative." Char responded, ear vents flapping slightly. He focused his gaze upon the test frame. "Preparing diagnostics."

"Now," I was bubbling with enthusiasm as I put my hands on my hips. " Let's get started, my round red lab assistant!" I pointed at the new and improved test frame with authority.

"Go!" I commanded my little red minion with a jaunty smile.

"Yes Ma'am, right away Ma'am." Char played along, the amusement at my antics clear in his smooth digital voice.

Char began the test run by moving the arms up and down. Continuing from there, he then tested the shoulders by rolling them at the joint, followed by swiveling the biceps, lifting the elbows, pivoting the hands and finally, opening and closing the fingers.

Having done the arms, Char moved on with the torso and hip movement. He bent test frame forward, then backward. After, titled the torso at the hips from side to side, then made the whole upper body twist from the hips.

"Upper body assessment complete." Char stated, eyes flashing to me. "Proceed with lower body testing?"

"Carry on." Crossing my arms now, I nodded.

"Affirmative. Continuing with the test." He rotated back to face the test frame.

Much like the arms, he started by individually moving the legs forwards, then sideways and backwards. Next, he tested the knee joints by bending it back and finally rolling the heels.

"Lower body assessment complete." Char's red vents flapped then, pausing. "I can test the head now, right?" Char looked at me again.

There was a vibration similar to excitement in his tone, and I knew why. Char had actually helped me design the new head and gave me suggestions for the eye movements, which we had both dubbed the 'mono eye'.

"Go ahead." I gave my assent, nodding again. I feel my lips turn upward when I noticed that the way he turned back was more eager than the last.

"Proceeding with test of newest installation on prototype." Char declared, and I really grinned now when I saw him bounce a bit.

My grin grew wider when I saw that the first thing he did was to move the new mono eye around.

 _Really proud of that aren't we?_

I watched as Char made the lens look side to side without moving the head at all. After he was satisfied, he made the whole head lean forwards, then lean back. Done with that, he made it look upwards, then downwards then side to side. His final step was to make the sure that the whole head can tilt by the neck joint and had tested that through a series of head tilts from side to side, then finally rolling at the base of the neck.

With all that finally done, Char paused just a bit before talking once again.

"Over all articulation assessment: 90.9% control and 90.6% unimpeded movement all around." Char's tone had returned to sounding more formal and neutral now as he gave me the reports of the results that he found in the test. He sprung up a bit as he finally turned back to face me." That's 40.2 % better than it was last time, Taylor. A fine improvement."

"Yep." I smiled in agreement, nodding at him.

The test frame now had more dexterity and flexibility because of the upgrades in the joints and the ligaments. It was amazing, I had just modified a few things but the base from what I had built up from actually made things easier to work with even the materials that I had.

"Now let's make it walk." I stepped back until my back hit the wall. "Make it get over to me, Char."

"Roger." Char made an affirmative sound. He moved the frame where it stood.

By the first step it took, I immediately saw the changes. When it was just more skeletal and made of wires and thin poles, the frame walked with feather light steps, and I always worried that it would fall over just from the slightest bit of wind that touches it. With just the control module and without Haro's movement system I had to actually make sure it balanced itself to prevent it from plunging down because it was too light and unbalanced.

The additional metal plating around the whole frame gave it just a bit more weight, and I worried that it would give it that too much heft and keel over because it was too heavy. Now that I hear its weighty footsteps and postured gait as it walked towards me, I could see that I managed to give it the just the amount of balance it needed to let it walk without fretting over how it would drop because of how much weight it carried with it now.

I could add the another layer of plating on it, to give it more protection. A layer of armor that weighed just light enough to let it move normally without balance issues, but hard enough that it wouldn't be pierced by bullets and damage the inner mechanics within.

"...well that's gonna take a lot of time that I don't have anymore." I murmured to myself, looking down with hand on my chin and contemplating my options now. Everything I had now was poured into the test frame, and any more is gonna take some junkyard diving and buying material with money I didn't have. Dad could help me with this again...but we had a deal and my time was up.

I had to fulfill my end of the bargain especially now after what happened last night.

I closed my eyes and thought back to what transpired when we finally got back to the house

+++V+++

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THNKING?!" Dad exploded as soon as we got home. I shrank back from the anger of his voice, the unmistakable fury that clouded his eyes.

"I-I just-" I stammered out feebly, feeling cold at the realization of what I had done earlier. I wanted to help so bad that I didn't really think of what would happen to me.

I had no excuse.

"Did you think at all!?" Dad shouted, and I bowed my head in shame as I recognize that he was very upset at the very real chance that I could have gotten hurt. "What would have happened if they actually got you? Taylor you are not supposed to just go out there and fight gangs like you're invincible!" I peeked at him and tried to respond.

"I-I couldn't jus-" I was firmly cut off once more by my father's fuming voice.

"Couldn't just what? Couldn't wait to go out there and play hero?! Do you have any idea how bad that could have turned out?! I saw one of them holding a knife Taylor! They could have stabbed you!" His heated tirade was emphasized by the furious motions of his hands and the way his nose flared in anger. He was mad, very mad at me for doing such a stupid thing.

"Dad I didn't do that just to play hero!" I finally looked up to protest. He had it all wrong! I didn't do it just to feel like a hero! "There was a woman there! She had a kid with her, and they were mugging her so I-"

"You instantly thought you should go beat those guys up yourself instead of calling the cops!" Dad angrily butted in again, throwing his hands up exasperatedly. "Taylor that is a one way ticket to getting yourself into something that's way over your head! Do you have any idea how much worse this could have been!?" The question was obviously rhetorical but I was starting to get sick of the way he's kept telling me of what could have been like I hadn't realized it yet.

"I know okay!" I snapped back, anger seeping into my voice as I finally looked back at him. "But I was just sick of it Dad! I was sick of not being able to help!" I glared at him defiantly and he glared right back. "I saw her getting in trouble and I just wanted to finally do _something_ that isn't just waiting around!" My hands curled into fist as I stomped the ground in frustration.

"That was still stupid Taylor! You went in there unprepared!" My father argued back, not even slightly abated by what I said. "You could have been really hurt!"

"I could have! I would have! That's all you keep saying Dad!" I swiped at the air irritably, annoyed that he kept saying things that didn't happen. "But I didn't Dad! I caved their heads in and saved those people!"

Why can't he point that out too? Why can't he be proud that I finally actually helped somebody!

"That is not the POINT!" My father screamed out the last word more furiously than the others, looking at me with such livid eyes that I stepped back, feeling scared at what he might do. " _YOU COULD HAVE_ ** _DIED_** _!"_ His enraged voice choked up at the end, and he put both his hands on to cover his face.

I realized belatedly that he was actually sobbing.

 _I just made my father cry._

That, more than anything, stopped me from saying anything else. I stared dumbly at him, watching as he dragged his hand back through his hair, breathing out to calm himself.

"You have no idea," he put a hand on his hip, looking away from as he said this. "How hard it was for me to convince myself, that being a hero was the best thing for you."

He was breathing in and breathing out while talking, noticeably more somber than he was furious as he had been before.

"I'll be terribly honest right now and tell you that I absolutely don't want you to do this, Taylor. I just want you to be my daughter." He closed his eyes, one hand massaging the back of his neck. "But I realized how terrible things could be, about what would happen to you if you weren't ready. If people ever find out about you, if people ever just come and take you away, how am I supposed to protect you from that?" He set his jaw, opening his eyes slowly. "That was something that convinced me, that it would be better if I let you be a hero, to be part of the Protectorate, where you would have people who could look out for you, protect you in a way that I couldn't." He limped his arms down and finally turned to look at me. "It didn't make things easier for me, Taylor."

His eyes were red from tearing up, and it highlighted the sadness that I felt from his voice. "In the end? I'm still letting you go out there, I'm still telling you that you can risk your life and throwing you to the wolves. That doesn't feel right to me Taylor. But I've accepted that it was the safest option, that this is what's best for this situation."

"But you still don't like it, yeah?" I bowed my head at that and set my lips together.

"No, but there's nothing else I can do but let you." He sighed. "Knowing you'd be in danger is hard for me Taylor, and the fact that you actually did that right without warning scared the living hell out of me. I ran after you to that alley expecting the worst, and you don't know how relieved I was that it wasn't. But now? Now I know that I'll eventually have to live with that feeling everyday once you actually become a hero, and I don't think it's ever going to be easy."

"I'm sorry..." I apologized with all the sincerity that I could muster, truly feeling the shame and the guilt that leaked out of my voice. "I'm really sorry..." I started to tear up again, but I immediately wiped at my face and put my head down. I wasn't going to cry again, even though I wanted to so bad.

"Taylor, I know you want to do the right thing." There was a hand on my shoulder, and I turned my head up to see my father right in front of me, leaning down to look me in the eyes. His eyes were still watery, but he didn't cry. "But you are still my daughter, and I am still your father. What you did just made me realize all the more that you're going to do that again every day, and I'm absolutely terrified by just thinking about it. It hurts me Taylor, so much that I want to tell not to, but I know I can't because that's about the same thing. Right now it's fine, but one day all I'll be able to do is pray that you'll be safe, and just wait for you to come home every day." After saying that, my leaned away just but a tear slid down his cheek, and that made my tears come unbound too.

"I'm so sorry Dad..."I sniffed as I put my arms around him and cried into his shirt. He reciprocated and I felt the weight of his head leaning on mine. "I'm so sorry..."

"I know, kiddo. I know." He kissed the top of my head comfortingly, and pushed me back slightly so he could look at me in the eyes. "Just...don't do it again? Not while you're not ready?" His brown eyes begged me.

"I won't do it again." I promised him, sniffling. I hugged him again and buried my head in his chest. He hugged me back and whispered words of comfort.

We stayed like that for a few minutes. It made me think of what I've been doing, and how we got here.

Right now we were in a volatile situation. To make sure I was safe we decided that joining the Protectorate was the best option, and there would be no arguing that I was going there. But my stubbornness had delayed that because I felt the need to prove myself, to prove that I could do Tinker things without the need of protection, of other people. I already realized how bad of a decision that was, and how made it things harder for both us.

I wanted to help him to make up for that, that was why I wanted to fix the ferry. I wanted to show him that the abilities I've gained weren't just a burden on both of us, I wanted to impress my dad by using the new powers that I've been granted to fix a problem that he's had for so long. I wanted him to be more accepting of me being a hero, I wanted to do so many things for my dad because I wanted to make him happy.

 _Because I wanted to make the pain of my mother's death go away by making his dreams come true..._

I realize, as my father comforted and embraced me, that I've been running away. The new powers I've gained has given me something to focus on, my desire to tinker with machinery and creating new A.I. have been an escape.

 _An escape from the sadness I've felt since my mother's death._

Every time I wanted to help people, was just me trying to get away from the creeping misery that I would feel whenever I think of Mom. My tears have been from the depression of her no longer being with us, held back by the ideas in my head that I wanted to come to life. They've built up so bad that every time I feel guilty or sad it would break the dam just a bit and let them out by a whole load, like it was right now.

I've distanced myself from her death, I've been thinking of my abilities and my robots and my life as a hero as a distraction.

 _Because I feel like I'd be crying for a lifetime if I ever think about Mom being dead._

I realize that while I have my cape powers to keep me busy, all Dad had was me being an damn idiot, fretting over the fact that his only daughter might follow after his wife so soon.

And all I did was frighten him by charging in blind to a fight I might not have been ready for.

 _I can't keep doing this to him._

The very least I could do was to give him some assurance. That I'll be safe while I'm being a hero.

I closed my eyes and felt my tears dry.

I leaned away from the embrace so I could look at him in the eyes.

"Dad," I started, steeling myself for what I was about to say _._

 _No more hesitation, do this for him._

"Let's go to the Protectorate."

+++V+++

"Taylor?" Char's inquisitive voice brought me back from the thoughts in my head.

I looked up and realize that I might just have been standing there staring at nothing for the longest time.

The test frame was already in front of me, as Char looked to me from the work bench. I did a once over the machine again. We plugged out the extension cord and let it use the new power supply system. This one was more like Haro and Char's, a ultra compact battery module stored at the section where the stomach would be. I plated it just enough that it wouldn't be destroyed if it ever got hit with anything strong enough.

"What do you want me to do with him next?" My round robotic assistant inquired for my next set of orders, flapping his ear vents and beeping.

"Oh," I straightened up. "Um, can you make him jog back to his station?"

"Affirmative." Char acquiesced.

The test frame swiveled around, and drawing his hands up, and imitated the act of jogging. His posture was perfect, he never lost his balance and the speed of which he completed the order was just right. The test frame then turned back around once it reached its destination, right on its previous station.

"Jogging is no problem as well, " Char reported, yellow eyes flashing. "The legs can lift itself the right way and there are no weight issues."

"That's great! " I cheered, a feeling satisfied in knowing I could do this much without an amazing budget. "So, let's make him do something a bit more complicated." I rubbed my hands together.

"Dance for me, my death machine of doom!" I put my hands on my hips authoritatively, looking at it with a serious face.

Char digital voice actually laughed, "Yes my Queen, right away!"

And so Char made it dance the Thriller, by Michael Jackson.

"...'Cause this is thriller, thriller night~! And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike~!" The song came out from Char's body, and the test frame danced along the beat, managing to imitate the steps perfectly, even doing the split and the clap, and the thing Michael Jackson does with his neck

"Awesome!" I clapped and bounced in place, excited that the unit was still agile and nimble enough to dance amazingly like it wasn't even heavy.

"Okay, let's stop." I giggled when I saw how the test unit stopped just at the part where he was supposed to split. Char chuckled and made it stand right up. "Report?" I asked Char.

"Nothing wrong, the unit followed the input commands to the letter. The only problem I can observe is the delay of command and movement." He told me while tilting his body sideways, like he was thinking.

"Delay?" I questioned him, frowning a bit.

"The remote set up for the control system. There is a 0.24 delay between the relay of command and the movement output. I think the wireless setting is the cause of this."

"Ah, I see." Of course, because it was by remote there was a route broadcasting of command frequency that needed to be received then processed before following the input to create the movement within the code parameters obtained.

I frowned at that. The delay time was a almost negligible but I really wanted to find a way to fix it.

"Taylor? Would there be anything else?" Char asked me, preparing for my commands.

"Ah, actually," I started and analyzed the test frame again. "For the next commands, do as I say the moment I say it."

"Roger. A simultaneous command and relay prompt to test the delay then?" Being ever so smart, my little red lab assistant instantly figure out what I wanted.

"Yeah," I nodded at him. "We'll begin...now! Punch!"

The test frame punched with its right hand as I said that.

"Kick!" It kicked out with its right foot.

"Punch left! Punch right!" It obeyed once more, all perfectly relayed.

"Left kick! Right kick!" A sequence of kicks in order of my command.

"Duck down!" And it ducked, just as I told it to.

"Jump!" It hopped it place.

"Right uppercut! Left uppercut!"

"Right roundhouse kick! Left hook punch."

The series of commands I made were obeyed to the letter as I observed the test frame with a critical eye.

"All right, let's stop." I commanded. The test frame relaxed back in its place. I quirked my lips sideways as I thought about what I saw. Char was right, the delay was there, and it got worse with me commanding it.

The command that came from Char was indeed 0.24 seconds of delay but with my own commands relaying to Char before input went to the frame the interruption of movement became shoddier at 0.27 seconds.

 _That's not good. But it should be good enough for now._

I wanted to fix it, but I didn't have time for it anymore.

"Is there anything else?" Char asked me again. He was looking at me with his yellow transparent eyes.

"Nah, I think that's enough now." I sighed. Char did a mechanical equivalent of nodding and powered down the test unit, which noticeable slumped down.

Dad already called the PRT to set up an interview and we were expected to be there after lunch. We were given instructions of how to get there and some standard procedure questions. A brief description of me and what I wanted to do. Thing like that, so they could prepare for me when I get there.

"I guess this is it..."I muttered to myself. I'm finally gonna get an interview with the PRT, and join them if they let me.

 _Wait, do they ever reject capes? What if they think I'm too lame to be a hero and tell me that they can't accept me? What if they turn me away?_

"Is there something wrong, Taylor?" Char's smooth voice took a more inquisitive and concerned tone. "I am detecting a rise in blood pressure from you, and your heat signature shows an increase in temperature." He listed off the signs of my agitation at the thought of the incoming interview.

"Oh it's nothing Char, I'm just kinda nervous." I waved off his concern, trying to play it cool. "I'm getting an interview the PRT, I'm just thinking of what could happen."

"Ah, the impeding event has evoked an emotion of anxiousness." He stated, doing his equivalent of an interested head tilt. "Curious, why does this bother you so?"

"Well, I dunno. I guess I'm scared that they might reject me." I replied with a shrug.

"I see, the thought of rejection leads to fear."

"Well, fear of the unknown I guess. Sometime when you get rejected you feel scared because you don't know what you're gonna do next." In the event that I get rejected, my father and I would be in serious trouble. I'll have to find a way to hide myself better, move the lab. I'd be an independent hero, and those kind of heroes have a high mortality rate.

"And that is what you feel? A fear of the unknown from the possibility of rejection." Char inquired with a flap of his vents.

"Yeah." I nodded.

If I did get rejected, I'd probably still try to be a hero. The desire to help people was still burning in me, and I don't think getting rejected would abate that. But that would mean I'd be making my father worry all the more, and the danger would be higher.

I feared for my dad too, that someone might find out who I am and use my father as leverage against me.

"Why?" Char asked again. He was looking at me intently awaiting my response.

I thought of the answer for a second and then replied. "Well, Char, it's like this. I have powers and I want to use them for good. That means I want to help people, Char. I want to use my powers to make people's lives better. That means I want to be a hero."

"And joining this organization will help you with that?" He made a curious beep.

"It would make things easier." I told him.

"In what way?"

"It would make things less dangerous for me, Char. Less dangerous for my dad. For us."

"Us?" He tilted himself again, a gesture of curiosity.

"Yeah, our family." I smiled at him. "You, me, Dad and Haro. Even that guy." I gestured at the test frame. "If I ever give him and A.I. or something." I joked.

Well, not really. That was one solution I thought of for the delay problem, just upload an A.I right into unit.

 _Hmm, might need to put a check on that. I'm being to trigger happy with making A.I.'s._

I already had Char and Haro made in a span of a few days, and that felt too much already. I imagined myself in a room full of Haro like robots, all bouncing and beeping and being curious about everything. I groaned, I don't think I could handle that.

"Family..." Char's digital voice became far off for a second, as if he was assessing the word and what it meant.

"Yeah, I'm trying to join the Protectorate so I can protect our family." I said to him. "Family is important Char, and protecting your family is that most important thing in the world."

Char paused at that, ears flapping and eyes flashing.

"I see." He lost his far away tone while saying this."Does being a hero with the Protectorate truly mean less danger?"It seems that Char was in an inquisitive mood, because he's been pouring in these questions.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Is that what being a hero means, to be in less danger?"

"No, Char, no." I shake my head at that, dispelling his definition. "To be a hero means to put _yourself_ in danger for the sake of others, you risk your life in order to save people." I raised a finger and lectured him. "Being a hero means you help people, Char."

"That is very contradictory to your previous statements." He beeped at that, tone confused. "You desire to be a hero, which inherently means to put yourself into danger, and yet you say that going to the Protectorate will let you become a hero, and put us in less danger?"

"Uh you're really confused now huh?" I smiled a bit at that, leaning back on the wall and crossing my arms.

"Yes, could you please elaborate further?" I blinked at his tone, which could pass of for something like agitation.

"Okay, " I looked up in thought, thinking of how best to explain this. "I told you I have powers right? I'm what people call a Parahuman, someone with extraordinary abilities. What I want to do with them is to help people, that means I want to be a hero, just like I told you before."

"Yes, and you stated that being a hero means to be in danger. Why is that?"

"A lot of times, to be a hero is to walk with disaster." I thought of the people who were capes that became heroes. Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon...Hero. The Triumvate, the greatest group of heroes in the world. "To help people it's often that we have to fight things that cause them harm." I thought of the things that would do just that. Villains, like Siberian. Disasters, like the Endbringers. "It means we run the risk of dying, but even if we do, it's because we tried to the right thing. We tried to help the good people, and that's never wrong."

"The right thing to do..." Char's eye dimmed, as if he was critically thinking of the things I said. "Why is the Protectorate a chance to be in less danger?" He fired off another question as his eyes flashed back to life, and I smiled as I obliged him another answer.

"Well, just because you're a hero, it doesn't mean you have to be alone. Strength in numbers, that kind of stuff." I shrug. "The Protectorate is a group of heroes backed by the government. If I get in, it means I'll be safer because I'm going to be fighting with them, instead of being alone."

"So the dangers are lessened because of the number of heroes you will work with, correct?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

"And it will put us, your family, in less danger because...?" He tilted his body, a gesture for me to elaborate.

"To be honest, right now we are already in danger." Char's ears flapped alarmingly at that. I waved a hand around the basement. To the things I made and the things I worked with. "The powers I have are desired, Char. Sometimes by very bad people. Some of them will stop at nothing to get to me. I'm afraid that they might use Dad to make me do that things they want."

"Why would they do that?" Char's tone was more quiet now, like he murmured the question because he realized something bad.

"To gain power, people are willing to do bad things. Power is something that everyone wants, Char. It makes things easier, it makes getting what you want easier. There are people out there that would kill just to get something like what I have." I close my eyes in contemplation. Capes around the world have shaped the modern era. People looked up to them, people feared them, people envied them.

To be a Parahuman is to be unique from the ordinary people, because you can do things that they can't.

That invokes jealousy, hate, prejudice.

I've heard of radical groups that hate parahumans and make them out to be agents of the devil. I also know that there are people that would use capes for their own gains. Just like Dad said, tinkers were kidnapped and made to be slaves.

"If this is true, then why try to help people? Why do you desire to be a hero, something that sounds so difficult, so dangerous to become?"

Char's question made me open my eyes. I turned to him, a little round robot sitting there at the work bench that he was built on, unendingly curious about life and it's complications. He looked at me with yellow eyes that I made for him, turning the body that I built for him upward in extreme curiosity. There was intensity there that I couldn't place.

I felt like my next answer was going to be the most important one of all.

"Helping people is the right thing to do Char, " I started, I feeling out what felt like the right answer. "It's never easy, but you do it because it's what separates you from being the a good person, or being a bad one. Just doing what you want is easy, with powers you could do so many things you want to do, without thinking about the consequences of what happens. Even if it hurts other people. Doing the right thing? Making the hard choice? It makes you better than that, it means no matter how hard it is, so long as you are doing to right thing, for the right people, then it means you've overcome yourself, you've become what they haven't."

"And what is that?" Char's digital voice was quiet as he asked this.

I smiled at him.

"A hero."

Char went silent after I said that. There were no more question for a few more seconds, and I felt myself relax into the wall more after I realized that Char wasn't going to ask any more.

"Taylor?"Dad's voice came from the top of the basement stairs. I looked up and saw him standing there at the door. "It's almost time to go, are you ready?"

Was I really? I thought back to the things I said to Char. Was I ready to actually to do this?

"Yeah," I answered my father, and myself.

I looked to Char, he was looking at me again. He tilted his body in curiosity.

I looked at him, and then at the test unit.

 _I need to make sure they'll accept me._

"Dad can you get the back of the truck ready?" I asked him, still looking at the test frame.

"For what?"

"To carry something." I stated simply. I turned to Char, my lab assistant.

"Char, I need you to come with me." I told him.

"Okay?" He beeped an affirmative noise. I riveted my gaze back to the test frame.

"And I also need you, to make this guy climb the stairs."

I turned my head back to Dad up the stairs, whose eyes were now wide with what I said.

"We're taking the test unit to the PRT."

+++V+++

This is meant to be a more emotional chapter, I've wanted to lay the foundations of Char's character and his development from here.

As always, read an review. You guys are great, your reviews actually make me write faster. Thanks for the follows and the faves!

Edit: As of May 3, 2017 chapter shall now be known as 0.1.2 instead of 0.1.4


	4. Chapter 4

+++Origins 0.1.a part 1+++

 _Interlude_ \- _Sophia_

The afternoon was settling in, but she didn't want to wait until the sun went down before she was out of the house and up the rooftops.

She was a hunter.

And so she hunted.

With the weight of her crossbow at her waist, she vaulted over the buildings and across the rooftops.

 _This was freedom._

Away from the cage she called home.

Her most obvious hunting ground was at the Docks, not a single day passed without a crime happening in that part of Brockton Bay. It was perfect, all kinds of gang members, rapers, and muggers at easy pickings on every day of the week.

All she had to do was wait until they got frisky before she beat their ass's in.

She found that they got even more bold during the winter holidays.

 _All because of a stupid day about giving other people presents._

Sophia Hess was not one for sentiments.

Sentiments were meant for prey.

And she was predator.

So as she jumped through the rooftops and transformed into her shadow form, she searched for rats to shoot off the streets, and she searched for predators just like her.

 _The ones who deserve to be on top._

A particular sight caught her attention immediately.

A woman with light colored skin who had a child with her, hurrying down the streets for some reason.

It was obviously because of the three sleazy looking men leering at her from just a distance away. ABB, from the color of their clothes and their Asian ethnicity.

She smirked, landing at the edge of the rooftops that overlooked the alley that the lady and her child just rushed into. She didn't even need to wait as the three men from earlier followed almost immediately. One of them caught the lady by the shoulder, making her shriek when she was turned around. They laughed like hyenas, grabbing her bag away from her and pushing her down with her kid.

The woman immediately took her daughter and wrapped herself around her protectively, even when the kid cried so annoyingly. She felt a flash of irritation at that, eyes twitching at the sight of a mother defending her daughter.

Sophia stayed where she was. She needed to know before she acted, and she readied her crossbow and loaded a bolt just in case.

Was this woman a fighter, or a victim?

 _Was she a predator or a prey?_

If she fought back then Sophia would go down there and beat the collective asses of these Asian sleazebags.

If she didn't and she proved herself weak, then Sophia would just let what happened to her happen, then stop the assholes before they killed her.

She would help only those who were strong, those who survived.

That's how it works.

 _On this violent, brutish little planet of ours, it's the survivors who wind up the strongest ones of all._

That's what she believes in, and that's how she was going to hunt.

 _Find the survivors and give them their chance to be strong._

 _Let the weak feel how pathetic they are and leave to roil in at the bottom of the food chain._

Like the prey they were.

The woman was begging, crying to the laughing men. Her kid cried, one of the men told her to shut her up.

Crossbow primed and ready in her hands. Sophia leaned in anticipation for what the woman was going to do when one of the assholes kicked her.

 _Come on. Fight back!_

She was so focused on the woman on the ground that the loud slam of metal cracking on bone was all she heard, and then the next thing she knew was that the gang member with the bag went down in an unconscious heap.

 _What the hell?_

She turned her attention to the cause.

There was a girl there, who looked as old as she was. She was taller than Sophia, with long brown hair and glasses on her eyes. The lower half of her face was covered in a handkerchief to conceal her identity. She looked like a beanpole, skinny with no defining muscles on her figure.

In her hands was a metal bat.

 _She knocked him out with those scrawny looking arms?_

There was immediate retaliation from the ABB members, with the closest one looking to grab her.

The scrawny looking girl leaned down and rammed the bat into his gut. And then quickly slammed down the bat on his head with as he recoiled away in pain with no trace of mercy.

 _Whoa._

There was a flash of steel as the third member lashed out with a knife. The girl dodged his blade by leaning nimbly away. He sneered at her and brandished his weapon before he charged right back in.

Sophia watched what happened next with wide eyes.

The girl, scrawny, no muscles and not even looking like she should be out here fighting men twice his size, dodged his every attack with deft efficiency with no wasted movements, moving right, away and then once she was shown a clear opening when the sleazebag stabbed at her again, she showed no hesitation as she practically bashed his skull in with her metal bat with a mighty swing from coming in from the side.

 _...holy shit._

Sophia has only been doing this vigilante thing for a few month, and before that she's been working herself up to fighting shape just so she'd be ready to kick ass and take names without worrying about being caught unprepared.

Her powers only added to that, being able to shift into her shadow mode helped her dodge attacks that would otherwise be deadly.

And here right now she witnessed a girl her age do the same thing she's been doing for months with ease. Looking like a nerd with her glasses and her baggy clothes.

But as the girl stood there, standing upon the men who she defeated with naught but a metal bat and the efficiency of her strikes, she saw deeper than what was on the surface

This girl was a survivor. A predator.

 _No._

Not just that.

 _A stone cold warrior._

Excitement filled her, she wanted to jump right down there right after the glasses wearing girl gave the woman her bag and told her to go her way.

"Taylor!"

The voice stopped her right in her tracks.

A man stood on the end of the alley. From his features it was obvious that he was the girl's father.

Sophia frowned when she saw him drag his daughter out of the alley in a hurried pace, worried about the pest that would come. She watched the girl—Taylor, that was her name—haul back into the dingy looking truck looking dazed.

She put her crossbow back on her waist and waited just a beat before melting into her shadow form, following after the truck as it drove away.

She stalked it all the way back to their house, where she would pause and commit the location to memory, before merging back into the shadows and back to the docks.

What she had seen had excited, and she was grinning all way back to the docks. She needed to hunt, and all she could think of was how she would outdo the girl in the way she took down those fools.

The scene at the alley kept playing through her head, and she smirked as she found four more thugs just like the ones the girl had beaten up.

Green and red, ABB gang members.

These ones were beating a some white kid up, but even then the kid would get back up and try to fight. Futile, but it looked like he wanted to go down swinging.

 _Heh, let's see about that._

Without any hesitation she jumped right into the fray by kicking the head of the nearest thug and dropping him before he could act.

Her crossbow was already loaded and ready, so she shot another one of them in the shoulder. His shout of pain was quickly shut up with a swift hit from the butt of her crossbow handle.

As the other two got their wits among them and realized what happened, they charged her.

They obviously thought they could overwhelm her with numbers.

Sophia— _Shadow Stalker_ — smirked. Just as they were an inch away from her, she shifted back into her shadow form.

The fight was over before it ever began.

+++V+++

Once the grunts were handled and kid shuffled off and away, Shadow Stalker jumped back up to rooftops.

She was still smiling, feeling the adrenaline rush into her veins, the memory of what she witnessed earlier still in her mind.

When she fought in that alley, Sophia wasn't really fighting those thugs anymore. She was fighting in her head, trying to outdo the girl— _Taylor_ — with her maneuvers.

She still found that what she did was badass.

 _She doesn't even have a shadow form, and she still dodges like a boss!_

Today was the day she's been waiting for. After being out on the streets for months, beating up fools and stalking for people like, she's finally found what she waited for.

A real hunter.

Now all she needed to do was show herself to her and persuade her to do what she doing.

Hunting down the rats in the streets.

It was obvious. Hunters also come in packs.

It was more efficient to hunt with fellow predators that it was to hunt alone, survivors stick together. They become stronger by besting their opposition, beating down those who oppose them.

Sophia will wait for her chance to talk to her, but she knew that Taylor would come to see sense in what she would say.

It was in her stance.

It was in the way she fought.

Taylor was a predator.

And Sophia would be the one convince her to accept what she was. She wouldn't let this chance pass by.

That night, Shadow Stalker prowled through the darkness with an exuberant smile.

+++V+++

 _Interlude - Colin_

Today felt like it was going to be a long day. Colin Wallis, more commonly known by his hero name Armsmaster, walked through the halls of the PRT building. Suited up in his power armor, Colin contemplated the latest reports handed to him. They painted a nasty picture of things to come.

The docks were slowly being infested by a rise of gang related crimes. Kidnappings of people with Asian descent were the most prominent. Forced recruitment, judging from an increase of number with a certain gang.

The Asian Bad Boyz, abbreviated ABB, was growing in power, and their territory at the docks was becoming more solidified with each day. One requirement for their membership was being Asian, and that factor helped quell some of their numbers.

Still, the rate at which they were increasing was disquieting.

The factor that made this all possible was their leader.

Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu.

A powerful Parahuman capable of ramping up the longer the battle went on. Within his arsenal was a form of pyrokinesis, rapid regeneration that only got better the longer the fight went on, steel scales that would serve as armor and protection that covered his body, and the ability to grow in size to look more like a winged dragon.

An incredible set of powers given to a single individual, so great that he was able to fight against an Endbringer toe to toe for the longest time and still live to tell the tale.

Such was the problem that he now decided that Brockton Bay was his new turf. Armsmaster frowned as he remembered all the times that the gang leader had been able to beat back a whole team of their Protectorate members, all while never being arrested and put in to custody. And he was only growing bolder and bolder as time went by.

Armsmaster needed to find a way to halt his ascent in power in some way. The docks was where he lurked and where most of his operations were being handled. One reason for this was obvious, people in the docks were very desperate.

The Boat Graveyard has blocked the way for any kind of import and export to come into the city, weakening the percentage of jobs that involved working there. This meant people were susceptible to other, less legal opportunities presented to them. While the ABB had marked the docks as their territory, they went only for Asians.

The other gangs were quick to scrounge up members for their illicit activities, such as the Merchants who would 'recruit' people through drugging them up, and the Empire Eighty Eight, a white supremacist group that gladly welcomed people to their cause, provided they were born in the right color.

People were jobless, they needed to eat, and doing illegal activities were their means of making money.

Sympathy for their situations aside, Colin still had a job. And it was only made harder by the mounting amount of gang activity that was spreading throughout the city. The PRT was being outnumbered, in both heroes and soldiers.

The scale was tipped in the oppositions favor, and Armsmaster was not willing to let it tip any further. The biggest problem were people in the lower classes being tempted by money due to its scarcity within their area, something had to be done to stop that.

"That frown on your face won't exactly be the best way to enthuse your newest would-be recruit, Colin."

The statement came from the voice on the radio of his helmet. Neutral due to being digitally enhanced to disguise the true voice, and yet distinctly female with the hint of a Canadian accent.

His thoughts of his work had once again put him through the tunnel vision he usually experienced once he put his mind upon a task and tried to solve it.

"Does it?" Colin made his face take on a more neutral expression. "Better?"

"Not much better, but yes. That way you won't scare the recruit off more than you already would." The voice teased, and Colin fought the urge to frown again. He'd given her access to his suit's camera system, so should he frown he'd be jostled once more by the legendary Tinker.

Dragon, a heroic Tinker of world renown and referred to by many as the best Tinker in the world, was in the middle of lending him a hand before he was given the report and subsequently called over to the PRT for the interview with a new cape interested in joining the Wards.

Specifically, Dragon was here to help along with the learning program he was currently working on. It would greatly increase his efficiency on the field once it was perfected, letting him predict his enemies movement and allowing him to counter and avoid them. Right now it was stll in the delicate processes of learning, loading actions from known villains to its database and looking them over to detect and predict their attacks. It turned out that Dragon was particularly skilled in coding and programming, and so while at first he was reluctant to get help, her offer of assistance was eventually accepted and it tremendously eased a lot of the troubles he had with the program.

"I'm just thinking of the current situation in the Bay, Dragon." Colin referred to the woman with the name she took as a hero, for that was the only name she had ever given him and the PRT.

"I know, but you really can't let that affect you right now. Remember that the person you're going to talk to is a child, there's a high possibility that you'll intimidate her if you keep your frown." Dragon reminded him. There was sympathy in her tone about the current state of the city, but her light reprimand had helped him remember why he was in the PRT Building.

"I suppose," Armsmaster conceded. He pushed back the issue about the criminal activities in Brockton Bay for now, focusing instead for the task ahead.

He had been informed that the new cape had arrived a few minutes earlier. A teenage girl with the abilities of a Tinker.

As a Tinker himself, Colin welcomed the chance to recruit a new Tinker within their ranks. The only other Tinkers in town that he knew of were Leet and Squealer, both of which had chosen the life of crime instead of enforcing the law and serving the people like he had. In short, he was the only Tinker in this city that had actual sense.

The possibility that this Tinker could join their team was something he personally looked forward to. Tinkers within the Protectorate were known to share their creations and trade notes with other Tinkers.

This was an opportunity that could not be passed up.

"You're excited." If he could see Dragon's face, he was sure she would be smiling.

"Perhaps." Colin was, in fact, excited. Tinkers were valuable for what they were able to contribute.

"Let's hope you make a good impression."

"I'm sure my reputation will precede me." Colin smirked. He was known far and wide as one of the best Tinkers within the Protectorate, and he was not exaggerating when he said that he is one of their more prolific heroes.

Part of the reason why he was in Brockton Bay was to assure the public that they were in safe hands with him in their city.

He reached the room designated for the meeting, and opened the door.

"Hello, Colin."

Hannah, more popularly known as Miss Militia, greeted him as soon as he entered. With the American flag scarf covering her face he really couldn't see her mouth, but he could tell from the way her eye crinkled that she was giving him a polite smile.

"Miss Militia." He nodded at her in reply. As he walked over next to her, he observed the room. Spacious with four walls and colored white while looking unassuming but still lightly decorated to look more accommodating with another entrance besides the one he entered from on the other side. Miss Militia sat in a chair at the other side of a plain looking desk table, with another set of chairs in front, obviously set up for the interview.

"I was made to believe that she'd arrived." Armsmaster stated, looking at the empty chair.

"She will be shortly," Miss Militia replied, looking at him. She raised a brow. "You got here quite fast, are you _excited_ to meet another Tinker?" Colin felt his lips twitch at that.

"I have observed the same thing." Dragon butt in through his radio. "He most definitely is."

"Dragon." Hannah looked at his helmet in surprise. "My, I was not expecting you here."

"She's been helping me with a program I'm developing." Armsmaster explained to her, Hannah nodded in acceptance.

"I hope you don't mind my presence in this interview?" Dragon's digitally modified voice held a hint of deference. She wasn't officially part of the PRT, though her word held a great deal of influence that was seldom used. She was asking permission out of courtesy, and would also likely leave in the unlikely chance that she wasn't allowed here out of here as well

"Not at all. In fact, you are very welcome to join in." Hannah's eyes crinkled upward, which meant she was smiling pleasantly again." I'm quite sure our interviewee will love that you and Armsmaster are both here."

"I assume you'll be the one conducting the interview?" Armsmaster asked plainly . She nodded in acquiescence.

"Yes, I called you over to pitch the benefits of being a Tinker for the PRT better. She'll see you here as a marker for what she could become if she joins." Miss Militia explained to him as he nodded in understanding, feeling a swell of pride at her words.

"Let's hope not, one Colin is more than enough." Dragon interrupted, tone light in jest. Hannah laughed at this and Colin stopped himself from rolling his eyes.

There was a beep, and Hannah looked at her phone. "Ah, here she comes now."

The door on the other end sounded out with a knock. Miss Militia eyes crinkled at that before she told whoever was on the other side of the door to come in.

The knob turned, and the door opened.

Armsmaster observed the people who entered with keen eyes.

The girl who came through first was unremarkably plain in many ways. She wore big glasses and was undeniably skinny. Perhaps the most noteworthy characteristics were being unusually tall for her age, and her long brown wavy hair. In her arms she held a round red orb, and Armsmaster instantly zoned in on that particular detail. It looked like a toy ball, but given what he knew it was possible that it was more than that.

The other person that came in was a man. Armsmaster surmised that this was the girl's father, given their similarity in features and his height, which he had passed on to the girl. He also held another orb in his arm, this one colored green. He was now almost certain that the orbs were some sort of tinker device.

The last person to enter was both taller and broader than the girl. It's footsteps were loud and clanging like metal. The way the floor vibrated beneath his feet, he could tell that whatever it was it was heavy. The person was covered heavily from head to toe with a large tarp that had been formed into a vaguely hooded cloak that managed to hide away discernible features under its tan surface.

Unseen because of his visor, Armsmaster's eyebrows knotted together in suspicion. He'd be watching out for that one.

He turned his attention to the young girl. She froze when she saw them, her mouth opening and eyes going wide as dinner plates.

"Good afternoon," Miss Militia welcomed them pleasantly and gestured to the chairs. "Please, take a seat."

The skinny girl didn't reply for a moment and stood there stock still, gawking at them.

"Y-you're Miss Militia!" She suddenly gasped out and pointed at her, and then at him. "A-and y-you're Armsmaster!"

"Taylor, it's very rude to point." The man standing next to her reprimanded lightly, but he was smiling amusedly at her reaction to them.

"O-oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean t-to!" She apologized pulling her finger back like she'd been burned, cheeks red. "It's just, I-I didn't expect that you'd be doing this interview but gosh you're Miss Militia! And he's Armsmaster! I-I never thought I'd meet you this soon! I mean I knew I'd eventually see you, well if I actually get to be part of the team but you know I didn't think it would be like right now because I'm like the biggest fan and this like the best thing ever and..." She paused and Colin saw the smile on her slightly wide mouth all but split her face. "ohmygoshthisissoawesome-"

Colin was grateful she didn't squeal at the top of her lungs like other girls did when meeting celebrities.

She was, however practically jumping in place as she kept excitedly gushing on until the man, her father he assumed, put a hand on her shoulder.

"Taylor, breathe." He laughed softly, Miss Militia did so as well.

"Okay." She exhaled to calm herself and moved towards a chair her father led her to, dropping onto it with a plop. "H-hi." Her cheeks were still red, sounding thrilled but more subdued. "Sorry about that. I'm just, wow..." She gave them a very nervous smile.

"It's quite alright," Miss Militia assured her, waving away her concerns. "I'm flattered to know you think so highly of us." Her voice was mellow and welcoming.

Armsmaster was glad that Hannah was taking the lead here. His people skills...required work. She'd never had that issue. Even before she learned the language.

"As you already know, my name is Miss Militia." Her posture became more professional while her tone retained its warmth. "and this -" She gestured to him with a delicate open palm, " - as you also know, is Armsmaster." He offered a polite nod in their direction as she continued.

She put both hands on the desk and to steeple them together. "Now, I've heard that you've recently gained what you believe are powers. Is that true Miss...?" Colin of course knew that Miss Militia was well aware of the girl's name. This was a standard procedure test to see if she was willing to share her real name, or her cape name.

Barring certain circumstances, her identity would still be protected should she choose not to reveal it to them.

Colin wondered why Hannah wasn't following the rest of it though. There was a procedure that included the introduction of their branch and what they both were.

"A-ah, yes. I mean uh..." The young girl stuttered and looked even more nervous now that it was her turn to talk. She looked to her father searchingly and the man gave her a reassuring smile, nodding at her to continue. She gulped, sitting up straighter on the chair and coughed. "I mean, yes. My name is Taylor Hebert and this is my dad, Daniel Hebert." She gestured to her father who nodded and greeted them.

 _Hebert? That sounds familiar..._

"About a week ago I woke up and just started building things, I took apart a lot of stuff in the house and made something I didn't know I could build before."

Standard Tinker habit, Armsmaster thought. The urge to build was strong, especially after a trigger event. He'd felt it the first time, and many times since. Though he'd managed to gain a lot of control since then.

"I figured that would make me a cape and I uhhh... think I'm a Tinker. Dad agreed, and now we're here. I'm thinking of joining the Protectorate." She fidgeted in her seat as she said this. Colin noted that she was hugging the ball more tightly and narrowed his eyes when he saw yellow lights flash.

"Your father explained similarly on the phone call." She nodded at her explanation and leaned a bit forward. "I would like you to know that it pleases me very much that you're interested in becoming part of the Protectorate , Miss Hebert. We always welcome the chance to let parahumans such as yourselves join our ranks."

Especially right now, he thought drily. There was a huge difference in numbers when it came to parahumans that wanted to become heroes or villains. The nature of trigger events had led more to the latter than the former. Right now the heroes needed all the help they could get.

Hannah straightened up in her seat, looking at them more seriously now. "To start, I'd like to first say that whatever happens in this room stays in this room. Though you have revealed to us your identity we shall not in any way take advantage of that knowledge and keep it us solely to ourselves. No matter what you decide today, you may go on with your life as Taylor Hebert without anyone else knowing of your powers besides those you wish to give that information to." Those were part of the unwritten rules that they all abided by. Colin learned throughout his career that even villains complied with them, though not quite all of them.

"Wait," Daniel Hebert cut in, Colin noted that he wore an anxious look on his face. He also saw that the young Tinker was more tense in her seat now, looking worried. "We walked into this building with people all around the place. What about them?"

"The people in this building are in the employ of the PRT, and are likewise predisposed to obey the rule of identity nondisclosure." Miss Militia told them, making a brushing motion with her hand. "Your were given instructions to enter the building through the other entrance besides the one in the front, yes? That was to prevent the tourist from seeing you. While we've already set policies that prevent them from taking pictures or videos without our express permission, we know that some of them are likely to break them."

Ugh, tourists. To this day Colin couldn't stomach the fact that they needed to market themselves, even when he knew that public imagery was important. Armsmaster had always treated himself as a soldier, with his powers simply a very important tool that helped him fulfill his duty.

"Ah," The father relaxed, while his daughter visibly slumped in her seat in relief. "That's a load off our backs." He chuckled, giving his daughter a wry smile.

"Rest assured, we take extra care when it comes to capes identities." Armsmaster interrupted, speaking for the first time since they entered the room. "Especially one of our own." He added, hoping that they took that as an incentive to join.

"R-right." The young Tinker muttered in reply, looking at him with wide eyes. He appreciated the undeniable admiration he saw in them, one perk of public imagery he supposed, was that it painted a pretty picture for all his heroics while in the line of duty.

"With that out of the way," Hannah took control of the conversation once more. "I think it's time we discuss what it means to join the Protectorate, first there is the..."

She went on to talk about the perks of joining the team and about the Wards, and he would add his input at specific parts. Otherwise he kept the rest of his attention on analyzing the most silent occupant in the room, the one hidden away in the cloak.

Who was this guy? Throughout the interview he had not moved to take a seat like the other two, merely standing there like statue. No movements, not even a twitch. Not one word spoken, not even a sound.

 _And no breathing either._

Eyes widening behind his visor, Armsmaster realized that what he was looking at might not be human at all.

Ah, of course.

... _Did she make this all by herself?_

+++V+++

Sorry about the wait, life got in the way.

As always, read and review, let me know if you hate this or you like it.


	5. Chapter 5

+++Origin 0.2.1+++

Oh my gosh.

"...for Ms. Hebert, the Wards program gives her the opportunity to interact with..."

I was in the same room as Miss Militia and Armsmaster! This was so awesome!

"..now if you wouldn't mind we'd like to hear..."

Ohhh, Armsmaster's armor looks so cool! I wonder how he moves in it though? Some parts looks so constricting, kinda looks like it might be too packed in. Then again , he's a Tinker, maybe he does something to make that problem go away? Man, I can't wait to ask him about that.

"..iss Hebert?.."

Huh, the armor on the arms and the shoulders look like they're too small, but I can tell just by looking at them that they're put together efficiently enough that it doesn't impede movement. They definitely have more inside than what they're showing, I'm certain that the alloy is definitely made from something that can deflect bullets, if that's the case then it should definitely be heavy. Shouldn't that mean that-

"Taylor."

"Huh?"

The words streaming through my mind were broken by the voice of my father.

I blinked, remembering where I was. And the other people in the room.

I could feel my face warming in embarrassment.

I don't really get how I could tell that Miss Militia was smiling at me with that scarf on her face, but she most definitely was. Amusement twinkled in her eyes as they crinkled in a way that signified her mouth was actually curved upwards.

Armsmaster though, with his helmet on I could only see the lower half of his face. And boy, do I ever wish I couldn't, because that frown was definitely directed at me. Might be because he just caught me staring at his power armor like a like loon.

It was all I could do not to hide my face in hands and shrink back in shame.

 _God, they must think I'm an air head._

"You okay, kiddo?" Just from the sound of his voice I could tell that he was trying hard not to laugh at me. If that wasn't enough I could also see that his lips were trying not to smile.

Way to be supportive Dad.

"I-I'm fine, just can you u-uh, say that again?" I told him and then turned back to Miss Militia.

Miss Militia complied while still looking amused. "I'd like to inquire if you've already figured out your Tinker specialty, Ms. Hebert."

"Oh." I said dumbly.

Then I realized what she just asked.

"OH!" I practically jumped up from my seat. "Oh yeah I-I already found out what it is!" I exclaimed excitedly.

This was my chance! I can make them see that I wasn't just a stupid airhead!

I looked down at my arms, at Char who had been silent all this time. I also looked to my Dad, and Haro.

And finally, to my test frame unit, all covered up with a makeshift cloak from a tarp.

"Ehem." I tried to act as professional as I could possibly be by sitting up straighter while I coughed lightly into my fist. "I guess you could say that I found out about my Tinker specialty after my first invention."

I put Char down on the conference table infront of me to stand up from my seat, squeezing all the dramatic flair that I could possibly have in my skinny little body. I reached over and pulled off the tarp from my test frame.

In response to having the cover removed, Char made its head move to look at them directly with its single lens while standing straighter than before.

Here is my first test frame in all his gray colored and bulky glory.

"It's robotics." I gestured towards my test frame with a theatrical flourish. "This is the guy I made from the junk Dad gave me." I said this with unconcealed pride. It may be vain, but I made this with just the resources father and his friends scrounged up.

I don't mind praising myself, just a little bit.

Miss Militia's brows were visibly raised while Armsmaster's frown had thinned down to a more neutral line, yet he leaned his head just a bit more forward, an obvious sign of curiosity.

"Very impressive. Most new Tinkers don't have something so advanced with just the resources available to the everyday public" Miss Militia praised, and I could feel myself starting to preen at that. Dad was quiet but I could see the edges of his lips lift up at what he heard. I could even see that Char and Haro almost flapped their ears from the small movement of their vents.

 _Not yet, guys. I'll get to you eventually._

Armsmaster spoke up, one hand rising to stroke at his beard. "The materials are the most interesting. The composition isn't quite so mundane as that of normal metals. How exactly did you acquire the alloys?"

"Oh yes!" I almost shouted, excited at another chance to show them that I knew what I was doing. "This is made from a lot of junk but you'd be surprised with what you can do with just that! A lot of the metals I got weren't made to be light so I had to melt them down a bit then alter them until they were just light enough."

The things Dad got me were mainly from the junkyard, but my Tinker powers helped me through melting them just the right way and modifying them to suit what I had in mind.

"It sounds similar to the processes and alterations I've committed to the metals of my armor. But mine has a combat application. Judging by the structural design of your bot they don't share that intended application." His assessment was right on the mark, and I nodded. I wasn't exactly intending to make the test frame for fighting after all.

"No. Not direct combat, but out of curiosity how light is your armor compared to what you'd expect from its size and bulk? Can you run really fast in it even with the weight?" I was itching to know all about his armor. Just from its weight distribution and reactive movement technology I could make so many improvements. Did he have a spare? I hope he had a spare. Now if I could just find a cutting torc-

"Near frictionless gels on the joints and electromagnetic technology allow me to move as fast as my own reflexes will allow." He responded with small nod. "I've specifically designed the legs to assist mobility and speed in case of rapid movement, or if sprinting is required. Though it wasn't designed for long term usage in that manner." He answered as a man who definitely knew what he was talking about. I could see that he put a lot of effort into his armor, and by the sound of it he's made it capable of fighting in many situations.

"Huh, I've needed to do the same with the test frame, I've actually had a problem with trying to make him jog a bit. He feels too weighty sometimes, and I'm worried he won't be fast enough to actually run." If Armsmaster was able to use the kind of gel he had on the joints of his armor, I imagine the same can be applied to me once I joined in. Just the thought of having the kind of resources that he's been able to work with made me feel giddy with excitement.

"Have you tried recalibrating the lower hinges of its knee joints?" He crossed his arms at this and leaned his head slightly forward, displaying real interest in my work.

I nodded quickly in response. "I did yeah, that kinda helped but I still feel that he's a bit heavy to run fast. The problem is the metal composition that I worked with, I think. Like I said, I got a lot of stuff that was heavy so even after I reforged it to be lighter it was still kinda heavy."

"I see, now I don't suppose that-" Miss Militia was going to say something but she was interrupted by Armsmaster, who was looking at my frame more intensely that before.

"Equal weight distribution isn't a problem anymore then, I suppose? The frame has been standing still for some time and it hasn't keeled over." His confidence in his observation resounded from his tone.

"It's one of the problems I've solved, really. First problem I ever had with the frame was that it fell over because it was so heavy, so I made adjustments in the torso and the legs to work like counterweights." I clarified my solution as concisely as I could while pointing at the parts I specified.

I notice Miss Militia take a breath like she was going to say something when Armsmaster continued.

"A simple solution but surprisingly elegant and efficient given your available resources and means."

I nodded with a smile, and noticed Militia once more looking as though she was about to ask a question before-

"I'm curious as to how you've made it move though, it walked into the room entirely on its own, so I must assume that you've used a device to control it remotely?"

Militia placed her elbow on the table and rested her head on the palm of her hand. I couldn't tell if she was amused or exasperated. Or was that resignation?

I wonder if Armsmaster was oblivious to the fact that he kept cutting in whenever Miss Militia was going to say something.

Should I say somethi-

"Or perhaps a neural interface of some sort. A rudimentary logic program perhaps. A simple remote control wouldn't work. The movements are too complex."

"Oh no!" I answered. For a brief moment I thought there was something else I had to say but then pushed it aside as the important matter of my work and the innovations made so far needed to be explored further. "I used to have a control module made from a broken PSP that I modified for operating the test frame through a remote signal from within the torso, but like you said the movements were _way_ too complex. It felt really _really_ clunky and awkward and not at all effective. Half the time I was just making sure it didn't tip over."

Armsmaster nodded at my answer. "Refining the control system was your first priority then, which obviously means that you've already found a solution to that. Judging from the current state of your frames posture, of course. How long did that take?" I was about to open my mouth when I was suddenly interrupted by my father laughing.

Dad was chuckling in his seat. "She fixed it in about as long as it took for me to cook lunch." He smiled subtlety at the quiet green orb on his lap.

Armsmaster looked genuinely taken aback by that. "That is remarkable." Miss Militia took this chance to reenter the conversation as she took her head off the palm of her hand, looking at me admirably. "Some Tinkers are known to struggle when they've only gotten their new gifts and yet you've made quite some headway with yours already." I gave her a big smile, appreciating her compliments. It wasn't bad to feel proud of myself right?

Armsmaster recovered from his surprise and nodded at what Miss Militia said. "I agree, it's good that you've found a remedy to the control system so quickly. Can you explain how?"

"Oh, about that." This time I looked over to my father who was staring at me. It seems that he knew from Armsmaster's question that it was time to tell them what else I can do.

"Like I said before, I found what my specialty was because of my first invention. I'd actually like to introduce you both to him now." I told them, looking at Dad who was nodding.

"Him?" Miss Militia asked, brows creased together. Armsmaster's mouth drew down into another frown, and I could almost swear that he had narrowed his eyes had it not been for his helmet.

"Uh," their reactions made me nervous, but I coughed and continued. "Yes, him. Miss Militia, Armsmaster, I'd like to introduce you to my very first invention, Haro."

I nodded towards my father, who raised the green orb in his lap and spun him around so Haro would be facing them.

"Hello!" Haro cheerfully greeted them, ear vents flapping and eyes flashing.

I walked over to Char on the floor, picking him up so I could present him in the same way that my father had done with Haro.

"And I'd also like you to meet Char, my robotics operator." I held him out towards them so they could see him clearly. He beeped just a bit before he spoke up.

"Greetings." Char's suave voice smoothly intoned, addressing them more cordially than Haro did. I almost giggled, reminded that his voice was in direct contrast to his small body. I felt like he was a grown man stuck in a child's body.

I really would have laughed, had I not noticed how my heroes reacted.

It was only for a moment, but Miss Militia eye's had widened and that gave me an impression that she had been utterly shocked, though she quickly schooled her features back to take on a more neutral face.

"Why, hello to you too." She greeted them back politely, but her tone felt different now. More mechanical than before, I noted as a pit of worry started to grow in my stomach.

In contrast to her, Armsmaster had gone completely silent, his mouth set in a thin line. I gulped, feeling like the atmosphere was changing.

"...are those AI?" He asked after a small while, and though he did sound curious it was unlike the inquisitive tone earlier. More... interrogative. Authoritative.

I noticed that Dad had put Haro back in his lap, a frown forming on his face.

"Um, yes?" I nervously answered, drawing Char back more closely. "Haro was the first thing I ever made with my powers, and I wasn't completely l-lucid when I made h-him." I stammered, feeling something off about the way Armsmaster asked his question. "He had a built in learning program that let him move better over time, so I just reused that for my test frame." I explained, but there was just something in the way he stood now that felt more tense than before, judging from the frown on his face that seemed to deepen even further. " I-It solved the problem I had with the movement controls because Haro adapted quickly to the limbs of the test frame and just treated them like his own. I decided to make Char because I didn't feel like Haro's personality would fit for the things I had in mind. I programmed Char to be more creative with his movements, with an algorithm for better reaction response even in real time conditions, even more humanlike movements because of how the test frame was designed."

I was definitely babbling now but I couldn't help it, the air in the room had definitely changed and I was reacting to that by talking about my bots more because I felt like they needed to understand why I made them and what their purpose was.

"...you have the ability to program A.I.s?"

A completely unexpected, completely new voice suddenly interjected. It was digitized, yet not enough that I couldn't tell that it was most definitely female, and it came from Armsmasters helmet.

"W-who was t-that?" I snapped my head back to Armsmaster, because I knew that was definitely not his voice, even if it came from his helmet. For his part, Armsmater looked just a little bit surprised at what he heard.

"Ah, sorry." The voice apologized, sounding abashed. "I wasn't planning on saying anything until either Miss Militia or Armsmaster introduced me, but I couldn't help myself." I had the impression that the woman had a sheepish look on her face, had I been able to see it.

"I was wondering when you'd say something, actually." Miss Militia chuckled lightly at whoever was speaking. "Armsmaster and our young Ms. Hebert were having quite the talk, I'm surprised you never joined in." That broke the tension that was forming in the room, and I quietly felt relieved at that.

"Well, Armsmaster looked like he wanted to ask a lot of questions, and I would just hate to interrupt him when he's like that." The woman, at least I assumed the voice was a woman, had an amused tone when she said that.

"I was just curious about how she's created the test frame." Armsmaster answered back quickly, frowning. I was silently glad that it wasn't directed at me now. "It looked quite interesting and I just wanted to find out how she was doing with it so far."

"I'm sure Miss Militia appreciated the way you kept cutting in on what she was trying to say." The voice said, still amused. Armsmaster's frown deepened before he opened his mouth.

"I didn't-"

"I assure you that I really don't mind. I was prepared for it, actually. I knew what I was getting into when I had more than one Tinker in the same room." She told them with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Now, I can see that Ms. Hebert is very curious to know who you are, so why don't you introduce yourself?" She smiled at me again. Well, I suppose she did, judging from the way her eyes crinkled.

"Of course." The voice replied agreeably. I turned my attention back to Armsmaster, or more accurately, to the voice coming out of his helmet.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hebert. " She started off politely. Her tone was very pleasant even when it was digitized and she definitely had an accent, though I couldn't really place it. "It's been quite interesting to hear you talk about your work, and a young new Tinker with the desire to become a hero is always welcome."

"My name is Dragon, and I'm hoping we could work together someday."

...

...

Excuse me what?

I didn't just hear that, right?

I didn't just hear her say that she was Dragon right?

No way.

No. Freaking. Way.

"What?"

"Um, my name is Dragon. It's nice to meet you?" She introduced herself, again. Very politely. With a very Canadian accent.

Like where Dragon was from. Who she was saying she was.

...

...

I think, I think I did the only reasonable thing to do when you found out you were talking to the absolute greatest Tinker in the world.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

I squealed in absolute glee.

Then all I saw was black.

+++V+++

There we go, whoo. Sorry about that delay, real life caught up to me and just did not want to let go

Also wowee. I broke 100 reviews! And more than 200 followers! And 180 faves! That's awesome! I didn't expect to reach that on my first story, but wow! I'm kinda overwhelmed because, whoa.

That is absolutely amazing. Now I'm actually really sorry for not being able to update more often. I'll try hard to update more!

Thanks for following this story, and please don't forget to review so you can tell me if you like it, or if have a problem with it. Things like that.

(100 reviews wow.)


	6. Chapter 6

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER, PLEASE READ.**

+++Origins 0.2.2+++

"...eartbeat rising...brain activit...stabilizing...she's wakin...up."

"..aylor! Taylor!"

What? Why was someone calling my name? Is that Dad?

I feel my eyelids slowly peel apart, opening them to the sight of my Dad was hovering above me, gazing at me with small smile

Wait, why was I down? Wasn't I in the middle of an interview?

"Bwuh?"

"Hun, you had us just little worried there." He sighed in relief, squeezing me tighter as I lay in his arms.

"Wuh happun?" I asked him.

"You got a little too excited, kiddo." He flashed me a wide smile.

"You fainted." A smooth robotic side spoke up near my side. I move my head slightly to see Char and Haro flapping their ears at me.

"Fainted! Fainted!" Haro bounced up and down while saying this, sounding as cheerful as ever.

I fainted?! But...wasn't I in the middle of a PRT interview?

"I think it's safe to assume that Ms. Hebert is a big fan." There was the unmistakable tone of amusement coloring the female voice that spoke. I turned to its source and saw Miss Militia standing there next to Dad.

No, no way. I did not actually just faint in front of Miss Militia.

Please tell me I didn't actually just faint in front of Miss Militia.

"Is she alright now?" Someone replied to Miss Militia, speaking with a synthesized feminine voice that sounded concerned.

Wait.

I'm starting to remember. I was talking about my bots while they were interviewing me then everything got weird and then...

Oh.

Oh. My. God.

Slowly, my head creaked over to the source of where the voice came from.

There stood Armsmaster, arms crossed and visor gazing at me with the visible half of his face looking as stoic as ever. He wasn't behind the desk anymore, standing closer to where I was, presumably because I just...fainted.

I just actually fainted.

"Hi there." The digital voice spoke up again, sounding out from Armsmaster's helmet.

I made an effort to have my mouth form my next words "Are...are you really D-Dragon?"

"Yes, she is." Armsmaster answered immediately, with his lips were actually quirking up just a smidge. "I can confirm this with utmost confidence, Ms. Hebert."

"Yes Ms. Hebert, my name is Dragon. And I must say I'm actually very flattered by your reaction." Dragon's voice filtered out of Armsmasters helmet once more. "It's nice to know that you're a fan." If I could see her face, I imagine she would be smiling at me politely.

I could just actually feel my whole body lock up as I processed what was happening.

"You're Dragon...and I actually just fainted in front of you?"

"Yes! Yes!" Haro chirped up helpfully, bouncing up and down. My Dad didn't quite chuckle, but I could feel from the vibration of his arms that he was trying to hold it it.

"You were indeed unconscious for thirteen point fifty six seconds. I recorded the thumping sound of your body hitting the floor. I can play it back if you require further evidence," Supplied Char with his yellow eyes flashing.

Then he proceeded to do just that.

 _"-EEEEKKKKKKK-"_

 _"Thump."_

"Ah, I almost forgot that I also recorded that shrill sound you made before you lost consciousness." Char was oblivious to the horrified look on my face when I heard the recording. "I'll just repeat that in case you weren't ready for it." His eyes flashed again, right before I shook my head furiously to stop him from doing so because somehow my mouth just didn't want to function correctly right now.

 _"-EEEEKKKKKKK-"_

 _"Thump"_

"Will that be enough?" Char seemed really unaware of my utterly pale expression as he flapped his ears at me.

"Y-yes Char, that'll be enough." I answered, trying hard not to sob. Yes, that's definitely enough. In fact, it's already too much. In a matter of seconds I went from meeting my heroes to making an absolute fool out of myself in front of the greatest Tinker in the world.

 _I ACTUALLY JUST FAINTED. IN FRONT OF DRAGON._

 _MY LIFE IS OVER_

"Oh god please someone just...end me." I hid my heating face away in hands as I could literally feel the embarrassment and the shame flooding through my whole body.

 _I can't believe this is happening._

"Sorry, goes against the job description." A hand was placed on my arm, I peeked through my fingers to see that Miss Militia had leaned down to give me placating look. "I'm quite sure she would love to talk to you, Ms. Hebert." Her eyes twinkled at me, crinkling up again to signify her hidden smile.

"It's truly a pleasure to meet you." Even through the synthesized nature of her voice, I could feel the honestly that Dragon was conveying. Slowly I peeled my hands off my burning face and glanced over to Armsmaster and hesitantly replied.

"I-I'm a really big fan. " After thinking really hard on what I should say to her, that was the first that came out of my mouth. If I wasn't embarrassed enough already, I would've slapped my face with an open palm. I could feel my face burning up a lot more. I opened my mouth and tried to save face. "I-I mean I love your work! The things you've done to help people are amazing! I've read up on all of your inventions online a-and they've really inspired m-me to be a h-hero too! I mean it's not that I didn't want to a hero already, it's just that even before knowing I was a Tinker I always thought of how cool you are, especially your suits! I think they're awesome and that you're the best Tinker in the world and-" I abruptly clamped my mouth shut when I was that Armsmaster was starting to frown.

 _Of course Taylor, just keep running your mouth off. Make things more awkward because you certainly haven't dug yourself deep enough yet._

"We can see that." Armsmaster replied for her, his visor most certainly hiding away the eye roll I could feel that he was directing at me. "Now if you don't mind-"

"-I am very honored that you think so highly of me." Dragon cut him off, chuckling lightheartedly. "The things I do aren't for the sake of being appreciated, but it honestly feels very pleasant to know that they are. I'm delighted to know that I'm an inspiration to one such as yourself, Ms. Hebert."

I blushed, beaming at what she said. I'm honestly sure that if I could see her face right now, she would really be giving me a smile too.

"Now I'm sure that you're very excited to have a chat with Dragon, Taylor." Dad said, smiling wryly down at me. I realize that he was still holding on to me this whole time."But I think it's really time we get back on track with this interview."

"Yes, I concur." Armsmaster was quick to agree with my father, nodding his head stiffly. Dad patted me as he righted me up so we were both standing. Armsmaster continued, "Right before Dragon introduced herself I believe that you were talking about your ability to...program A.I.? " Armsmaster shifted his gaze down lightly to glance at Haro and Char who were both on the ground.

"I'd like you to list their capabilities and specifications as well as their parameters in their current algorithms." Both my little inventions turned their bodies so they would be staring at him as well. I wonder why, but I certainly feel like if Char had the ability to, he'd be glaring at Armsmaster. I admit, the way he's giving me these questions made me feel distinctly uneasy.

 _Did I do something wrong?_

"Now, now. I don't believe she's quite comfortable with how you're asking her about it." Miss Militia gave Armsmaster a certain look, making him thin his lips. "I believe we need to step back just a bit and let her explain them on her own and let her decide when we can give our questions."

"I believe Miss Militia's right." Dragon added in right before Armsmaster could say anything. "While I'm very interested to know more about her abilities, I think it's best if we let Ms. Hebert enlighten us on the subject the way she wants to. Would that be alright?" The deepening frown on Armsmasters face signified that he was not exactly pleased on how they were interrupting him, but he kept quiet none the less.

 _Man, Armsmaster is actually kinda scary._

"Uh-huh," was all I could say. I peeked over to Dad and saw that while he was trying to look impassive, his mouth was trying hard not to frown. I think he didn't like how Armsmaster was being kind of...intimidating. He saw me looking and his lips formed a tight smile, nodding at me.

"Oh-h, I guess I just make them whenever I feel like I need someone to help me with things?" If I'm honest with myself, should I ever get into what I do just to program them I wouldn't be able to stop once I started. I think it's best if I start slow and simple, letting them ask me along the way.

I remembered some of the things I explained to them while I was babbling earlier. "When I made Haro, I probably wasn't very conscious of what I was doing. I just...woke up that morning with the idea of him stuck in my head and just had to make him come to life." I went on to explain the mess I left afterwards with a sheepish tone. Miss Militia was the only one to react to that with a small chuckle, while Armsmaster kept quiet but looked like he wanted me to go on.

"I actually had to learn the things he can do, because I didn't really know what I was doing. I just...kinda made him?" I fiddled with my hands nervously, aware of their scrutinizing gaze on me as I looked at the floor.

"I see, well it's not unusual for Tinkers to build their inventions without knowing exactly how they did so, it's part of the reason why mass production is very difficult to do." Dragon accepted my answer with an quiet hum. "Usually, the Tinkers who built their own equipment are the only ones who can keep maintenance on them."

Armsmaster bobbed his head in agreement, as the tenseness from his shoulders dropped and made him look less foreboding than before. "Yes, that's true." Then he glanced at Haro once more, voice pitched with genuine interest "I've observed how very childish your first A.I. seems to be, and yet the other one," he moved his head towards Char, who was stared right back, "seems to make responses befitting that of adults."

"I am not childish! Not childish!" Haro made angry beeping noises as he bounced up and down while flapping his ears. I clamped down on my amusement at that as I answered Armsmaster.

"Well, yes. Char was the one I made while I knew what I saw doing." I explained as I picked Char up from the ground and held him up in my hands. "I actually just based his body off Haro, but I wanted him to be different in personality and more mature so I can depend on him while I did my experiments and assist me in building my test frame, and whatever else I'll build."

"Assist you in what way, exactly?" Miss Militia asked with a slight raise of her delicate eyebrow.

I smiled at her, and rather than answer directly, I said: "Char, give them a wave hello."

"Affirmative." Char obliged, and with that the test unit raised its arms and waved at them.

"It's the one operating the test unit?" Armsmaster said with an altogether subtle but noticeable startle, "You've managed to design an A.I. capable of maneuvering a functional human like frame?" There's a distinct mix in his tone that I couldn't quite peg. Was that genuine astonishment coupled with just a bit of...

 _...is that actually jealousy?_

"Ah yes, I do remember you mentioning that earlier." Miss Militia was glancing quite inquisitively at both Char and the test unit, seemingly deep in thought.

"I guess you wouldn't really understand what I was saying because of how I was...babbling." I replied sheepishly, remembering my earlier episode of mouth diarrhea.

"Taylor has a knack for being a bit talkative when she's excited...or nervous." Dad supplied, grinning teasingly at me. I made a face at him, but I'm thankful that he's trying to at least be somewhat a part of this interview and support me whenever I was making a fool of myself.

"We've noticed." Armsmaster stated dryly. I ducked my head sheepishly. I really haven't made a good impression, have I?

"I'm actually quite interested in how you've managed to emulate human movement so seamlessly." Dragon's interjected with an inquiring tone in her synthetic voice. Her query made my head shoot back up, a thrill running through me at the thought of her interest in my work.

"Oh that's really part of Char and Haro's program."I explained eagerly

"Yes, a...learning system, as you've said before." Miss Militia said slowly, recalling the statement from what the messy chatter I made earlier. She looked up, titling her head sideways like she was trying to remember something. "This ability was originally instilled within your first A.I. and you've used it as a new movement and control system in place of the clumsy one you had previously, isn't that right?" She asked.

That made me blink.

 _She remembered the jumbled words that came out of my mouth?_

Wow, Miss Militia must have a really sharp memory.

"Um, yes." I nodded at her absently. "That's right."

"This program then," Armsmaster uncrossed his arms and leaned forward, looking at Char directly, "is also installed with your second A.I., which you coded with the specific purpose of operating your new inventions with movement capabilities, yes?" From his posture and his words, I could tell that he was scrutinizing Char's every detail very closely. To this, Char only flapped his ears, beeping at him.

"I did, and he's really helped me a lot." I smiled at my round red assistant proudly, holding him closer. "The test unit has grown exponentially ever since his creation. Everything's just so much easier! Char can point out the flaws when he controls the units movements and tell what's been fixed immediately when I do some tweaks to it. The algorithm I designed within his codes just lets him figure out the methods to improve the frame unit, cutting away the unnecessary bits to ease the maneuverability and weight distribution while suggesting modifications I can add without worrying about them impeding on articulation and the like. " I eagerly expounded on the number of things that Char has been able to assist me with.

I gave him a small pat. "All of this is because he studies the human physiology and their conscious use of their motor functions, as well as the emotional spectrum that people feel to generate more genuine reactions! He applies them onto my inventions to perfect the fine motion operation, which gives me a broader room to work on for even more improvements. He's really, _really_ helpful to me." I rocked him in my arm, truly appreciating my little invention for all the things that he's helped me with. He gave me a quiet, but grateful sounding beep in return.

"Remarkable." Dragon sounded genuinely impressed. "And he was created just through materials you were able to gather within your limited resources? That's astonishing in all by itself. Well done Ms. Hebert." She commended, and I could feel my face almost split from the smile on my lips. I won't lie, I am very much enjoying the thought that _Dragon_ was complimenting my work.

 _Dragon, the best Tinker in world!_

"T-thank you."I accepted her praise shyly even when inside I was floating in a cloud of euphoria, squealing in joy.

"And this program will only keep ramping up, correct?" Armsmaster's voice brought me back from my happy little cloud. "Have you created any sort of restrictions to this program?"

"Restrictions?" My eyebrows rose at his words."I designed Char with that program so he would keep learning, why ever would I put a hamper on that?" I'm honestly baffled at the thought of ever inhibiting the progression of my A.I.'s growth.

"So they aren't restricted in how much they'll grow?" This time it was Dragon that asked the question, with a note in her voice that sounded legitimately excited. "They'll continue to learn about humans as they analyze them then apply them to your inventions?"

"That would be correct." Unexpectedly, this time is was Char who answered, his voice a bit muffled by my arm. Both the heroes in the room snapped their attentions to him immediately.

Char continued unperturbed. "My parameters include the continuous acquisition of the interaction between the human psyche and their analogous motor functions."

Realizing that he might want to I carefully positioned him in a way that they'd be able to hear him clearly, holding him out at arm's length.

"So you're...emulating humanity?" Once again it was Dragon who asked the question, this time stating it directly to Char. Interestingly, I noted that her tone was somewhat hushed. "So you can function more closely to that of common man?"

"The study of the human physiology and their psychological thought processes is thoroughly coded within my preset algorithm." He explained with an amiable baritone. I felt a grin tug at the edge of my lips, I could already tell that Char was eager to talk about the things he could do. "Taylor created me for the express purpose of examining human habits, so that I may facilitate the operation of her inventions maneuvering system more meticulously."

"That's..." Dragon quietly breathed out, an action still heard through Armsmaster's helmet. She said nothing more, as if what she's heard effectively stunned her.

"Ms. Hebert," Armsmaster called out to me, his visor facing my way, "would you mind if we ask a your A.I.s a few questions?" He inquired, politely.

I thought about it for a second. "Uh, Char?" I asked him, because it would seem rude if I didn't.

"I would not be adverse to it." He answered agreeably.

"Haro?"

"Hmm?" Haro titled himself so he would be looking at me. Huh, was it me or did Haro sound distracted? He had stayed perfectly still on the ground, not even rolling around.

Pushing that thought away, I ask him more clearly. "Do you mind if these people ask you a few questions?"

"Ehhh." He made a whining sound, as if he didn't like what he just heard. I blinked, he's never done that before. "Hard questions?" He squealed out, sounding wary.

"Oh, I don't know?" I looked at Armsmaster and Miss Militia in askance.

"I assure you they won't be." Miss Militia's gaze ghosted over to Armsmaster, who gave a brief nod.

"Well, Haro?"

"Ehhh." He whined again, rolling on the floor lazily. He really did sound kind of distracted. "Questions are boring." He made a small dismissive beeping noise, and _actually turned his back on me._

My mouth actually dropped in shock.

 _When have you become so rude, you little brat!_

"He has a will of his own?" As I stood there in complete surprise, Armsmaster voiced out his observation with an inquisitive tone. I closed my mouth and glared at the little green ball.

"He's not usually like this, when I tell him to do something he usually does it. " I gave him an apologetic look. "He must have gotten the attitude from hanging out too much with my best friend."

This is all your fault, Emma.

 _You're turning Haro is a spoiled brat, you fiend!_

"You didn't exactly tell him what to do, you just asked him to." It was Dad who said this, bending down to pick up the rude green ball from the floor before he sat back down with him on his lap. "You usually ask stuff and he just does it. I've don't actually heard you order him around that much." He patted Haro, who didn't really look like he was paying attention, judging from his dimmed out lenses.

"If it's all the same to you, I think I will be sufficient enough to answer any inquiry they may have." Char said this proposal with an appeasing tone. I glared a bit more at Haro but nodded at what Char suggested.

"If you wouldn't mind?" I asked the heroes, looking them in turn.

They looked at each other for a second, before Armsmaster nodded again.

"Yes, that will do." Miss Militia agreed with a nod of her own, eyes crinkling at me again.

"Well, there you go then." I shrugged, daintily taking a seat as I placed Char back down on my lap.

I smiled politely at them.

"Ask away."

+++V+++

True to their word, the questions weren't really too hard.

At least, I didn't think they were.

It mostly consisted of things that pertained to his understanding of his own programmed attributes. The most notable thing about it was that Dragon had the most things to ask, politely prodding him about the facets that went under the emulation of human functions.

"During your simulations of human movement, do you add your own interpretation to the series of actions you generate? A quirk in your motions, if you will. Something of your own, not from anyone you've copied from," was one of Dragon's more intriguing questions. I could tell from her voice that she would be listening closely to what Char would answer, like she was very fascinated about what it would be.

"To better comprehend the physiological characteristic of human motion, I'm programmed to thoroughly examine the human emotions driving their actions. Developing a 'quirk', as you say, is part of the current procedures I am undertaking." His reply was given with a polite but factual tone, as he had done for most of his interview.

"So you're saying you do have them, yes?" She reiterated quickly. Was that eagerness, I wonder? It certainly sounded like it, though it felt like Dragon had tried to be subdued with it.

"I am in the process of having them, yes. Do forgive me though, I am only about one and a half days old." His quip, delivered with the digitized low baritone exuding light humor, earned him a soft chuckle from Dragon, which Miss Militia and myself joined.

It wasn't long before Dragon started asking more questions, and of course Char would respond to them appropriately.

Man, she really wanted to know more about that one particular subject matter.

I admit though, Dragon's profound curiosity about Char's most unique feature was something that made me giddy from knowing that I invented something that the foremost Tinker in the world was very engrossed in.

Though she wasn't the only one who seemed really absorbed in what my A.I. could do.

While not having quite as many questions as Dragon, Armsmaster's genuine interest in my work was clear despite the stoic deliverance of his inquiries. Methodological, quick, and precise, his queries were generally centered around Char's more technical aspects.

"Am I right to assume that your present set of parameters has allowed you to grasp the motor skills needed to engage in combat?"Armsmaster also seemed very curious about whether Char could use his current algorithms to fight.

"Indeed it has. With the unit I am currently given access to, I can input maneuvers primarily focused in close quarters combat. Should it be provided with long range weaponry I will be able to employ them as well, " Char's default tone of responding with Armsmaster was civil and curt, as he seemed to grasp that the hero wanted his answers to be clear and concise.

Armsmaster paused, tilting his head. There was an ephemerally subtle movement in his jaw, like he was chewing on a particular thought. An unobservant eye would not be able to see, but I was intently paying attention to the heroes reactions to Char's responses, dearly hoping to see any positive signs.

It was unbearably hard to get a read on Armsmaster, given his very stoic demeanor

"Does your ability to fight depend on the unit?" Interestingly, there was a faint insistency coloring his tone when he said that.

"Yes, maximum application of my combat capabilities are very dependent on the overall quality of the unit that I operate," Char replied.

Armsmaster paused again, and then said, "Essentially, you're stating that you have already mapped out the test frame's theoretical effectiveness once it's gone into a fight. Am I correct?"

Char's answer was a quick "Yes."

"Were you given orders to do so?" Armsmaster was quick to question in turn.

"It's an essential element of my Response algorithm to gauge what current capabilities and faults the unit I am to operate has, so that I may adapt in any situation, and control the unit effectively according to what it can be able to do. It's ability to engage in combat is part of that." I didn't notice, but I was actually unconsciously nodding to Char's explanation. It seemed the code I developed for him was working great.

"Response algorithm?" Armsmaster's visor hid it, but I was sure he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's part of his artificial intelligence interface." This time I was the one that answered, feeling like it would be better if I did so. "Char is actually just an abbreviation for **Creative Hyper Action Response.** "

Of course, that opened up a lot more questions.

I didn't notice that that had marked the end of their questions to Char, because I was all too happy to be part of the discussion that followed.

Armsmaster and Dragon responded to my enthusiasm on the particulars of coding interface and engaged me with their own. Dragon had quite the insight on A.I. algorithms, joining me in breaking down many of the procedures that went into effectively programming them while Armsmaster seemed wholly interested in designing them with minimal bytes of code in mind, to help run it more quickly and efficiently.

I'm not really sure how long we kept talking like that, but I think we did it long enough that Miss Militia actually interrupted us with a loud but obviously fake cough.

"While I'm really glad to see that both of you are getting along well with Ms. Hebert," Miss Militia said as our attention snapped to her. Her eyes were twinkling again, a clear sign of her amusement, which seeped through her voice as she continued. "However I really do feel that we've stayed on this topic long enough, and Ms. Hebert needs to get through with her interview on being part of the team," my face heated up in embarrassment, realizing that I may have just toiled away the time with because of how immersed I was in the discussion.

I still have an interview to finish. About joining the PRT, not just about the improvements I could do if I got help from probably the best Tinkers ever.

"Taylor, I really don't think we have all that much time left with the way you guys kept talking each other up." Dad added his own two cents in, face mirroring Miss Militia's amusement. Okay, I admit, maybe we did talk too much, but I couldn't help it, it was just too fun.

"Ok..." I felt my shoulders slump just a bit. I was really enjoying talking with them too, we were just getting into the possible ways to route the command system more smoothly to get past the delay problem I found earlier.

"Don't be sad, sweetie. I'm sure you and your Tinker friends can go do Tinker things later." Dad kept a facade of a father consoling his daughter but I glared at him anyway because I could tell just from his tone that he was definitely making fun of me.

"It would be a sincere pleasure to have another chat like this with you, Ms. Hebert." Dragon grabbed my immediate attention with her words. The edges of my lips lifted to form an excited smile, knowing that I've caught the interest of the most amazing Tinker in the world, enough that she actually wanted to talk to me again.

"R-really?" I stammered because of the thrill pulsing in me, but I didn't really care then. Char beeped in my lap, reacting to my excitement.

"I'll personally make myself available if we ever have the chance to talk again." She told me with clear warmth heard even through her digitized voice. The happiness in my chest bloomed, and the smile I had felt like it stretched my face as far as it possibly could.

"And I'll be there to see that she doesn't forget." Armsmaster assured, and I thought for maybe just a second that he might have actually smiled.

"I'll hold you to that, o-okay?" I did my best impression of being serious, but there was a hopeful tone in my voice that just wouldn't go away.

"Of course." Dragon promised.

"Awww." A childish voice whined. "No more playing?"

I swiveled my head towards the source, and saw Dad looking down in surprise at Haro, whose dimmed out eyes flashed to life directing himself to face Armsmaster's helmet.

"Haro?" I gave my first invention a very questioning look, perplexed by what he meant. "Playing with what?"

"Friend!" Haro gyrated himself to me with ears flapping. "Play with friend!"

"He's referring to me, actually." Dragon chuckled lightly as she confessed. I spun my attention back to her with an eyebrow raised, one that was mimicked by Miss Militia. "He's been roaming around the net-space within the facility ever since you introduced him."

This got a reaction from both Armsmaster and Miss Militia, and I noted with dread that both of them tensed up.

 _Haro what did you do?!_

"It's okay!" She quickly add in. "One of my programs intercepted him, but I found that he wasn't really doing anything besides exploring around without really trying to access anything," She sounded like she wanted to pacify any problems before they fester, which was I was _very thankful_ for, as it was enough to at least make the heroes in the room stop looking so uptight.

"So that's why you've been so quiet!" I exclaimed as I connected the dots for the reason why he seemed so distracted. I turned back to Haro with small frown. "You shouldn't go around playing in places you don't know Haro! That's bad!" I berated him with a glare.

"I'm sorryyyy." Haro's voice sounded truly morose as he apologized, rolling down in shame.

I immediately felt guilty because of how miserable he looked, even when my Dad gave me a look.

"It's not anything really serious Ms. Hebert," Dragon said reassuringly, likely reacting to Haro's apology. "I personally made sure he wasn't trying anything harmful. I actually went in to indulge him when he clearly showed that he just wanted to play around." She continued with another chuckle.

"I can attest to her statement," Char interjected, his tone similar to Dragon's, "I was there as well."

"We played!" Haro chirped up suddenly, rolling up "Fun!" He happily fluttered his ears, beeping cheerfully, which made Dragon laugh even more.

The corners of my lips lifted reflexively, silently relieved that my jolly little Haro wasn't so gloomy anymore _._

 _Well, if Dragon says he didn't do anything wrong then it's okay, I guess._

I was just thinking that I shouldn't have been so harsh on him, then I realized how he went from really sad to really happy so quickly.

My eyebrows slowly creased together.

 _Did he just...?_

That little brat!

 _He was just acting like he was sad!_

I've been had!

My lips morphed back into a scowl as I glared at the devious green ball, who had the gall to flail his vents like he was happiest A.I. in the world.

 _I would bet my next 10 tinker bots that this is all Emma's fault! She's teaching him to be a drama queen like her!_

 _That is absolutely unacceptable!_

Emma Barnes had to be stopped!

As I sat there silently seething and formulating plans to topple the monster slowly corrupting my poor little Haro, Armsmaster spoke up.

"Are you sure he didn't try anything?" He asked sharply.

"I am, I guarantee that he didn't and wasn't planning to." Dragon assured once again, more confidently this time.

"Ms. Hebert," Armsmaster addressed me this time, tone firm, "It is in everyone's best interest that you discourage your A.I. from engaging in this sort of behavior in the future. While Dragon was able to intervene before secure sectors of our data farm were compromised, I would like to remind you again that the information we have on file tends to be highly sensitive in nature, and that the PRT is covered by the Federal Information Act of 2008, which makes the very act of accessing said information without any kind of authorization a felony. " I wilted under his lecture.

"Armsmaster," Dragon cut in sharply, a pitch in her tone that felt like she was scolding him, "I'm telling you, he wasn't doing anything serious," She insisted her case more firmly, "even if I didn't come in, he was just reading bits of code and data that weren't-" abruptly, she cut herself off.

There was a long pause, and when she spoke, it was only these three words:

"Oh-oh my... g-god."

So simple, and yet these words were able to shoot a chill up my spine, feeling myself go pale when I recognized the undeniable note of absolute _fear_ even through her synthesized voice.

It was enough to make the whole room's temperature drop.

"Dragon?" Armsmaster was the first to react, immediately putting an urgent hand to the side of his helmet as he swiveled away from us.

"What's wrong?" His voice was level, but there was a tenor of real worry resonating in his question, his whole body taut with concern.

This was the first time in the whole interview that I had seen Armsmaster show such clear emotions,

"Is something the matter?" Miss Militia asked, her alarm shining through her eyes.

"I-is Dragon okay?" I asked warily, my eyes wide. I looked to Dad in worry, and I saw that he had a similar expression on his face, looking to me in concern.

"Dragon?" Armsmaster asked again, his mouth speaking more closely to what I suspected was the microphone of his helmet.

It took what it seemed like forever for Dragon to respond, as everyone in the room waited anxiously.

I didn't really notice how my A.I.s were silent as well.

"Dragon?" This time, I was the one who asked, feeling too uneasy to keep my mouth shut.

"I-I'm fine." Finally, Dragon answered with a small stammer. Then it seemed like she fixed herself up before spoke again.

"I'm fine," She reiterates insistently, "I just saw something wrong here in my lab, it's nothing to worry about on your end." Her explanation was clearly rushed and deliberately vague, which everybody in the room took note of. Armsmaster and Miss Militia looked at each other, it seemed like they reached an agreement as Armsmaster opened his mouth say something again.

"I'm sorry," Dragon said before Armsmaster could say anything, effectively cutting him off, "but I really must go now. There's something that I need to check up on, and I can't afford to delay." Her tone hasn't changed, still harried, and she was definitely hiding something.

"I promise that we'll meet again, Ms. Hebert." She spoke to more directly now, "I will do everything I can to make sure of that." This time her promise sounded so solemn and genuine that it startled me.

Then she paused once more.

"Thank you."

And then promptly went silent.

"Dragon?" Armsmaster spoke into his mic again, hand on his helmet. Slowly, he lowered it back down to his side, stating his next words neutrally.

"She left."

He was frowning slightly, obviously confused.

"Aww." Haro rolled down again in sadness, tucking in his ears, "friend is gone." He beeped miserably, and this time I felt like he wasn't acting anymore.

"She did promise that she'll come see Taylor again," Dad patted Haro consolingly, giving him a small smile, "that means you'll get another chance to play with her again buddy, so don't be sad." Haro rolled up to look at him.

"Really?" He squeaked out hopefully.

"Really." Dad gave me a look, obviously looking for my support. I was still feeling confused, but I still nodded absently.

"Yeah, she promised." I told him encouragingly, and in my lap Char subtly flapped his ears in silent agreement.

"Okay!" Just like that, Haro pepped up and bounced on Dad's lap, making him laugh.

"I have never heard her sound like that before..." Armsmaster whispered distractedly, still looking a bit baffled with how promptly Dragon left. It seems like he didn't realize that he said that loud enough for me to hear.

"Ah," Miss Militia coughed into her fist, before turning to us. "The matter she had to attend must actually be very urgent." She looked over to me with a smile, "it does seem like you've made quite an impression upon her Ms. Hebert, judging from her parting words."

"Why though?" I asked aloud, confused. I mean, it's not like I invented anything too groundbreaking or did something amazing for her.

 _Why did she sound so grateful?_

All we did was talk about Tinkering, did she really appreciate it that much? I mean sure, it was fun, but just thinking about how _real_ she thanked me was making me think that it was something else.

 _I wonder what it was?_

"Something to ponder on later." Dad interrupted my thoughts, looking at the heroes imploringly. "Right now though..."

"Yes, Ms. Hebert's recruitment." Armsmaster nodded, focusing back on at the matter at hand.

 _I guess I can think about it later._

Right now it's time to finish this interview so I can finally join up.

 _And finally get enough material so I can work on the ideas that keep popping up in my head._

"Quite," Miss Militia lifted her hand to look at her phone, eyebrow raising. "Hmm, it's seems like you're quite lucky today, Ms. Hebert."

That made me look at her in surprise, watching as she went behind the interview table to take something out from a drawer.

She walked over to me and delicately held out her hand.

"You'll need this for what's coming next."

In her hand was a simple white mask, capable of hiding away enough portions of my face to conceal the more important features. I looked up at her in confusion, the question clear on my face.

Once again, she smiled at me as she told me her reason.

"While you've shown willingness to reveal your identity to us, I believe it's only fair if we give you a chance to decide whether you'll reveal it to the people we're about to introduce you to, since you clearly didn't know the intricacies of having a secret identity when you came to us."

"Oh." I almost forgot that I completely screwed up when I came here without anything to hide my identity, just in case Dad and I had second thoughts.

Something she said still made me wonder. "Introduce me to who?"

The twinkle in her eye brightened further.

"Why, the Wards of course."

+++V+++

Miss Militia had gone to fetch the Wards while my Dad was accompanied by Armsmaster to review the papers we needed to sign for my recruitment.

I sat nervously in the lobby that they left me in, adjusting the mask on my face to make sure it wouldn't fall out. Char and Haro were rolling about, with the red orb making sure that his excitable green twin didn't break anything important. The test unit stood uncovered in the corner of the room, head slumped and eye dim as it was powered off.

 _I hope I can make a good impression this time._

I took deep breathes to prepare myself, eyes closed. Time to stay calm, and stay professional.

 _And no more freaking out._

And definitely no more fainting like an idiot.

There were sounds of footsteps echoing from the hallway, alerting me to someone's arrival. I opened my eyes, and was met with a whole lot of green.

"Hiya!"

The first Ward to greet me was a very young girl costumed in an armored long sleeve dress skirt decorated with wavy lines of forest greens and whites, her face covered in a green visor.

She stood before me with a wide smile on her lips, a hand held out expectantly.

"H-hi," I stood up to take her much smaller hand in mine and she gave me a firm shake, her smile even broader.

"I'm Vista, by the way."

"Oh." I didn't really know what to reply, because I actually haven't thought of my cape name yet. "I'm eh, still working on mine," I laughed nervously, feeling awkward.

"Oh, just triggered huh?"

"Yeah, about a week ago, actually."

"Well, if you're open to suggestions I can give some, I'm pretty good with names!" She nodded self assuredly, like what she said was just a fact of life.

"I wouldn't mind some, really. I haven't even thought about what to call myself yet." Suggestions would be really nice.

"Well," she put a hand on her chin, tilting her head, "I'm gonna need to know what you can do before I make something up, ya know." She grinned at me, and I grinned too.

"You know it's only fair that you tell me yours before I tell you mine."

"Oh, that's true," She held out her hand towards the far away remote for the television in the lobby, and suddenly the space between them became nonexistent.

"I can warp space." Smirking smugly, she took the remote into her hands and presented it before my wide eyes.

"That's so amazing!" I gushed, genuinely astounded, "travelling must be so much easier for you now!"

Now I remember! She was the little hero that debut about a few months ago, I couldn't recall because I was kinda busy with school work then, but I think there was a big fuss on PHO about how extraordinary her powers were.

Seeing it personally made it all the more impressive.

"It does, yeah." She nods, placing the remote back where it was and widening the distance once more. "Soooo?" She looks up at me expectantly, grinning.

"Oh, I make robots," I picked up Haro who was rolling around nearby, presenting him to her. "Like this guy. Say hi, Haro."

"Hi!" Haro chirped, ears flapping. The little hero gasped, looking enraptured.

"Ohhh! He's so cute! Can I?" She gave me a questioning look as she held her hands out.

"Sure," Giggling, I deposited him into her waiting hands, and she immediately raised him up and twirled him around.

"Hi there!" She giggled as she bounced Haro in her hands. Haro responded to her excitement with positive beeps, clearly enjoying her attentions.

"I see you've met Vista already," I heard someone say from the hallway, making me look over to see who it was.

A young man stood there, wearing a costume that invoked the image of a gladiator, garbed in a golden lion themed armor. His helmet was designed to represent the lion's head, making it looking like he was wearing the lion as a metal pelt.

"Hello there," A quaint smile shined through the gap of his helmet as the gladiator themed hero walked up to me, "I'm Triumph, it's nice to meet you, Miss...?"

"She hasn't thought of a hero name yet," Vista promptly answered for me, pausing her fun with Haro, "her powers let her build guys like this cutie though," she grinned as she presented my first invention to him, who beeped curiously at him. Triumph has been part of the Wards from before I started the school year, and his powers were all about manipulating sounds, which seemed really useful.

"Oh, she's a Tinker?" There was someone else at the hallway again, and I glanced over to see another boy walking in.

"Heya new girl, names Clockblocker." He introduced himself with a friendly wave as he noticed me looking his way. His voice was just a bit muffled by the faceless white helmet he wore, which enclosed his whole head. His costume was more relatively more plain than the other two, covering him wholly in a glossy white armor with clocks thematically designed in specific parts of his body.

He was fairly new, I think he debuted a month ago, I remember there being bit of a fiasco when he announced his hero name while demonstrating how he can freeze things in time by touching them, something about their PR department having a problem with his name.

"H-hi." I meekly raised my hand to wave at him. Then I felt like hitting myself on the head for looking like such an idiot.

I coughed, thinking on how I could recover. "And um, I don't just make cute bots." I picked up Char, who had rolled onto my foot during the Wards arrival, "I make guys like that too," I gestured with my head, to the dormant test unit in the corner. Char understood my signal and powered the unit on.

The Wards watched with obvious surprise as the unit came back to life with flash of its singly pink eye, standing straighter and walking up to them with a sure and confident gait.

"And this," I raised Char up so they could see him better, "is Char, my unit operator."

"A pleasure to meet you," he greeted them politely, eyes flashing. Clockblocker whistled while the others just stared, looking impressed.

"Whoa, you've been busy huh," Clockblocker's head bobbed up and down as he looked over my test unit, "this guy looks like he walked out of the Terminator." He put a hand on his chin as he leaned forward to take a closer look.

"Terminator?" I asked, unfamiliar with the word. I noticed Triumph and Vista giving him a look, something he didn't see because he was distracted by my invention.

"Oh, it's an Earth Aleph movie." Clockblocker answered off handedly, tilting his head at my unit, "it's about a robot from the future sent to the past by an A.I. overlord that's taken over the world to kill the mother of the resistance leader so that he was never born."

 _Oh._

"Clockblocker," Triumph sighed with a small shake of his head.

"What?" He asked obliviously before it seemed like he realized what he just said. "Ohhhh."

"Nice going, blockhead," Vista jibed sarcastically, scowling at him, "you really had to make things awkward, didn't you?"

"Blockhead! Blockhead!" Haro joined in, flapping his ears in time with Vista's scowling nods.

"Jeez I didn't mean it like that!" He raised up his hands, as if in surrender. "Sorry." He apologized to me sheepishly.

"Ah, i-it's fine!" I tried to reassure him with a smile, but I had a feeling it was less than effective because of how anxious I felt. "I'm not offended or anything," I tried to laugh it off because I really wasn't, but what the movie described felt a little _too_ close to home.

"Oh, cool," Clockblocker visibly sagged with relief.

"Besides, there's no way I would make my bots do that!" I looked at Char in my arms then to Haro in Vista's hands, trying to imagine if they would actually try to conquer the world and enslave humanity, but I found that I couldn't because I felt like I programmed them better than that.

 _At least, I think so._

"Right guys?" I asked them jokingly, hoping they would catch on.

"Would you like me to? " Char calmly returned my question with one of his own.

I felt myself freeze. Everyone's head swiveled over to them almost immediately.

"Would it be fun?" Haro's childish synthetic voice suddenly felt a bit _too_ jolly.

"No!" I answered quickly, "No, definitely not. So don't do it, I am telling you right now that under no circumstances will I ever order you to become A.I. overlords!" I raised my voice to make sure they understood that I was actually completely serious with my command.

Both of their eyes flashed.

"Understood."

"Okay!"

"Oh, thank god." To my surprise, Clockblocker said that at same time that I did. We looked at each other in surprise for just a moment, before we both broke out in laughter, something that the rest of Wards joined.

"Soooo," Clockblocker started, after the laughter settled down, "I heard you're here to join the Wards?" He asked casually. It was obviously an attempt to change the subject, so I immediately latched onto it with an eager nod.

"Yeah, that's the plan." I answered, smiling to show how I appreciated the change in subject. "I brought my bots here to show them what I can do." I brought Char closer to my chest as I explained.

"That's great!" Vista exclaimed with a peppy smile, "it would be awesome to get another girl on the team, especially if you bring this guy along." She hugged Haro, brushing his head like a little puppy. He only beeped in response.

"It's always a good thing to have more heroes help out in the city." Triumph nodded in approval. "And with the Wards you have the guarantee of being safer with us on your side."

"Yeah, we always have each other's back," Clockblocker gave me a thumbs up, and had it not been for his helmet I felt like I would see him grinning, "And we'll watch yours when you join us."

"Well, that's good to know." I giggled slightly, feeling some of my nervousness dissipate because of his welcoming words, "I'm actually looking forward to working with you guys now."

I smiled at them, and they smiled back.

With the figurative ice broken, our conversation moved on to more conventional things, as I asked them about what it feels like to be part of the Wards, to which they'd respond honestly, about things like the procedures that they follow, the image they needed to uphold to the public. I got a sense that while they were pleased to help the people, there's just this sort of restraint in their words as they talked about how they needed to follow the rules while doing so.

It wasn't all that evident in Triumph's or Vista's tone, but Clockblocker was a bit of a blabbermouth, and when he talked about how he needed to call in before engaging a villainous cape I could hear some sort of bitterness coloring his words. He tried to be subtle with it, but he was a sincere person, so I guess it was hard for him to be so controlled.

I understood why they couldn't really talk about the negatives of their job, since they are here to give me a pitch about the benefits of joining.

Nonetheless, it was quite enlightening to share a discussion of this nature with literal _superheroes,_ especially when they were people my age. Their perspective meant a lot to me, because what they've experienced would soon be something that I would share as well.

"It's nice to see that you're all getting along." Miss Militia's voice floated down from the hallway, where she stood looking pleased.

"It's not hard to, they're pretty nice." I gave them another smile.

"Aw shucks, now you're making me blush." Clockblocker joked as he put both hands on the sides of his helmet and acted like a little girl demurely covering her blushing face. I giggled as Vista and Triumph laughed.

Our reaction caused Miss Militia to smile, before she spoke again.

"While I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I am here to escort her back to her father."

"Ah, I guess I gotta go." I tried not to let my disappointment show on my face. I had a lot of question left, and they were really nice to talk to, but I guess it couldn't be helped. Clockblocker and Triumph both shook my hand politely as I told them my goodbyes while Vista looked slightly slumped when I got to her.

"So, we'll see you later right?" Vista said, arms extended to return Haro. She wore a hopeful look on her face, clearly wanting a positive answer.

"Yeah, you will. Definitely." I smiled to her as I grabbed my green bot and let my test unit carry him, making her smile back. I walked over to Miss Militia with Char in my arms and my test unit in tow.

"We'll be seeing yah!" Clockblocker energetically waved me goodbye and I waved back in reply, before walking into the hallway with Miss Militia escorting me away.

"I definitely think you're good fit with them." Miss Militia stated once we were sufficiently alone down the hallway "They're good kids, just like you."

"You really think so?" I gazed up at her as we walked side by side in the mundane white hall ways of the PRT building, the metallic clinks of my test unit's footsteps behind us.

"Trust me when I say that, I'm a good judge of character." She looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes, "You have something that I've seen in many heroes before you, Ms. Hebert."

"What?"

"A good heart." The sincerity in her voice touched my heart, and I felt my face start to warm up.

"T-thanks." I ducked my head at her praise, happy. As one of my childhood heroes, what she said meant a lot to me. I couldn't say anything more than my gratitude because of how my heart expanded in my chest, fearing that if I spoke I would just make an embarrassment of myself again.

We lapsed into a companionable silence for a while, with only the sound of our footsteps echoing through the halls. I thought about what Miss Militia said, about why she would think so nicely of me when she only just met me, and that lead me back to thinking of the things that I talked about with the Wards, imagining myself carrying the same responsibilities as they did within the limits placed upon them while having all those powers at such a young age. I especially thought of Vista and her undeniably amazing powers, while being so young, and yet she's chosen to be a hero, to fight the good fight.

 _We received these powers for a reason, and these guys believe that the reason is to help people._

Just like what I wanted to do, especially with...

"...Say," I began, looking up thoughtfully. At the corner of my eye I saw Miss Militia glancing at me curiously, "If... if I told you that my powers let's me fix something that's going to help a lot of people, would the PRT let me?"

"That depends," she replied with deliberate slowness "on what exactly this 'something' would be?"

I stopped, causing her to stop as well. I looked directly into her inquisitive eyes, keeping my voice firm and serious as I said my next words.

"Miss Militia, are you aware of the ferry in the docks?"

+++V+++

so here we go, PRT interview done. Now comes the fun part.

Edit: Hi there. Just to note, this isn't really a chapter update, rather I just made a some major changes.

To find out what they are, go back to Chapter 1 and read the author's note at the end.

And yes, I'm not dead, I'm coming back. I'm writing up the new chapter as I write this, and I'll post that as soon as I've finished.

Till then, see ya later!


	7. Chapter 7

+++Origins 0.2.3+++

There it was again.

"Char, move left arm ninety degrees upward." I looked critically at a particular spot on the joint connecting the arm to the torso. "Slowly." I added as an afterthought, quirking my lips a bit.

"Affirmative." Char gave a mechanical hum of compliance.

Just as I suspected, the action caused a small creak resounding somewhere within the joint.

"Aha!" I smiled victoriously, spotting exactly where it was coming from. I gave my tools a small spin at my fingers and worked on it immediately. Hmm, looks like the metal were scraping against each too closely, should be fine if I just loosen it up a bit. Still, I'll have to see just by how much, wouldn't want to make it too loose and end up causing the joint to come off more easily than it should.

"Let's see, I should just adjust the screws enough without messing with the articulation so that the joint won't sag then test it again to make sure..." I mumbled mindlessly on and on about the alteration I set about doing on the joint. I think talking while I worked out the kinks of my machine helped me focus better on the improvements I made on it.

"You know~," Emma droned from where she laid down on the couch with Haro on her stomach. I glanced over to her with an eyebrow raised, "I didn't think it was possible for your mouth diarrhea to get worse, but then you got powers that let you make robots." She took Haro off her stomach and raised him up, lightly rolling him in her hands.

"Weird how that works, huh?" She threw me an upside down grin, eyes playful. I rolled my eyes at her and went back to what I was doing.

"You've known me long enough to figure out that my mouth sometimes has a mind of its own." I kept my focus on the work in front of me, but I couldn't help but defend myself from her quip.

"Mhhmmm, really helped out with PRT interview right." She giggled.

I felt my whole face get hot but I refused to rise to the bait. I tried to keep my face from pouting but judging by her snigger I was not succeeding.

"I already told you Emma, the interview went well," I grumbled, trying not to pout as I kept working on my machine. "They really want me to work with them, and I even got to talk to Dragon!" A dopey grin crept up to my face, still feeling giddy over meeting the greatest Tinker in the world and actually having a conversation over the intricacies of my inventions. I still couldn't believe how lucky I was to be there when Dragon was visiting, it's like the stars aligned just to have her on the same room as I was to-!

"Oh yeahhhh," Emma's drawl interrupted my train of thought. " _Apparently_ , you left out a _very_ important little detail about that interview from me." The tinge of mischief her voice made my hackles rise.

"Oh Haroooo~," She sing-songed at the green ball in her hands. "Would you please replay what happened after Mommy found out that she was talking to Dragon?"

I paled.

 _Don't tell me-_

"Okay!" Haro beeped obediently, rolling away from her grasp.

"Haro sto-!" I tried to intercept but it was too late.

 _"-EEEEKKKKKKK-"_

 _"Thump"_

There it was, the recording of undoubtedly the most humiliating moment in my life, replayed to the one person in the whole world that I would never want it to hear.

"Pfffft, hahahahahaha!" Emma's rambunctious laughter was made only louder by the sudden silence that enveloped the room.

...I began plotting the number of ways I could hide the body of the annoying red head rolling on the floor clutching her stomach in side aching laughter.

"..pfff, oh god Haro, please j-just one more time," Emma chortled out her words in between her debilitating guffaws. I slowly closed my eyes, forgoing the thought of stashing her away in the back of the truck and letting it sink into sea. That was too obvious, and we needed the truck.

"Ok!" The traitorous orb made of pure evil squeaks out obediently like a well trained minion.

 _"EEEEKKK!"_

 _"Thump."_

...and there's also the infuriating ball of treachery and circuitry that needs to go with her.

I wonder if I can make Char help me with the bury her when I'm done. It needs to be clean, _no one can know._

 _Yes, no one can know._

Decision made, I nodded to myself, then stood.

And _**pounced.**_

"Ahahaha-wait Taylor what are you doi-AIIIEEEE!" I pinned her hands to the floor as I landed on her.

She paled immediately when she saw the look on my face.

"W-wait, you know I was just messing around r-right?"

I stared her down as I positioned my free hands to her vital points and made deadly sure she knew what I was about to do. Her became more ashen and she struggled from my grip, but to no avail.

"C-come on Taylor please don-"

I didn't let her finish and began my first assault...

...on her tickling sides.

"Ahahahaha-no please stop- ahahaha- Tay- ahahaha please noooo!" She begged through her peals of laughter.

"Never!" Was my merciless reply, grinning down at her viciously.

"Never! Never!" Haro echoed my sentiments with childish glee, bouncing on the floor. _Hah, laugh it up you little ball of disloyalty! I'm coming for you next!_

"Ehem," A deep cough reverberated within the basement, clearly done to gain our attention.

I paused in my divine punishment and looked over my shoulder to the bottom of the staircase, where my father was smiling amusedly at me. I heard the redhead on the ground gave a deep gasp of relief, but I gave her sides one last tickle and was rewarded with a loud squeal. I smiled at my dad, who looked more amused than before.

"Yes, Dad?" I asked him, not yet letting go of Emma's wrist as she tried to wriggle herself free. My dad saw this and quirked his lips.

"Taylor, I think Emma's had enough fun." His smile was still in place, but his voice brokered no argument. Reluctantly, I released the redheaded hellion and sat on the floor away from her. She sat up and slapped my shoulder, glaring balefully.

"You know I hate it when you do that!" Emma screeched at me, slapping my shoulder again. I glared back and bit back the urge to stuck my tongue out at her.

 _That would be too childish._

"Well you were laughing at me," I huffed back at her, turning up my nose smugly. "You totally had it coming." She scowled at me more and opened her mouth to shout something back.

"Girls, no fighting." My dad scolded, looking more serious now. "I'd hate for our guest think we're crazy from all the noise you're making." He gestured upstairs with a tilt of his head.

"A guest?" I asked, blinking.

And then I remembered where I was.

"A guest!" I stood abruptly, a sense of panic running through me. My lab was right here! "Char! Hide the frame, quick! Make sure no one sees it!" He gave a an affirmative beep in response to my hasty command as I grabbed my tools strewn around the basement with great urgency.

If the guest saw this place looking like this they'd get a clue and my secret identity is blown before I even have a cape man!

"Actually, Taylor-"

"Emma, stay here and keep Haro from going upstairs, no matter what!" I didn't pay heed to whatever my father was saying as I watched my best friend nod hurriedly and did what I told her to do by picking Haro up. Great, I had to be sure he stayed put because I knew that green ball of trouble would somehow find himself up there and then it wouldn't matter how much I hide my lab, they wouldn't be stupid enough not to figure out what he was and then-

"Taylor-"

"Dad!" I snapped my attention to him, suddenly remembering a very important detail.

"You promised that there wouldn't be surprise guest!" I pointed an accusing finger at him, distinctly annoyed.

"You said you'd let me know so I could prepare!" I interrupt him when he looked like he was about to reply, frustration seeping into my voice. That was part of the precautions we set in place to ensure that we wouldn't get people wandering around our house and seeing things they shouldn't see. He couldn't just break promises and spring surprises on me! I'm barely ready to meet people even when I was still no a cape!

"Now you have to help me fix this place up so we can hide stuff or we're fu-"

"Taylor! Listen to me!" He cut me off firmly with a slightly raised voice, and my mouth snapped shut with an audible click as I saw the annoyed look on his face.

He sighed once he saw that I looked quite abashed, finally quieted down after my little panic attack. "It's okay, she knows about your powers." He informed me with a hand raised in a placating manner.

"...what?" I was flabbergasted, I don't remember ever telling anyone else besides my father and Emma about my powers.

Unless...

"You told someone else?!"I hissed at him. Unbelievable! He promised me he'd keep this a secret! That he'd let me reveal my powers to the people that I wanted to know!

"Well, technically, we both did." He explained dryly, expression flat.

What?!

 _When did I-!?_

"I think it's better if we just go upstairs so you can meet her, then you'll understand." He started climbing up the stairs and gestured for me to follow. "You can bring your bots, I don't think she'll mind." He commented offhandedly as his voice echoed from atop the stairs.

I looked at Emma, the tools I was supposed to hide still in my hands.

For her part, Emma looked entirely lost as she held on to Haro, who looked eager to go upstairs and meet someone new, judging from the way he possibly vibrated with excitement in her arms. She just shrugged when she saw my perplexed face.

"Taylor, I do not think you should keep your father waiting." Char suggested politely, after he successfully fulfilled my request of hiding the test frame from plain sight. It was now inside the make shift cabinet in the corner of the room that I specifically built to accommodate its size.

"Alright," I sighed and put my tools down, "I'll go see who it is."

+++V+++

After telling Emma that it was better if I just left her and my bots down the basement, I made my way upstairs and to the living room, where I heard bits of the conversation that my father's had with our guest as I got closer.

"...I don't think she expected you to visit so soon." My father gave a small chuckle.

"Oh no, I simply couldn't dally after yesterday. Your daughter is one of a kind, and I wanted to personally talk to her in a less strenuous environment." Our guest said in reply, chuckling as well.

My face heated up when I heard the praise our guest had for me, stopping just short of the living room and taking a quick peek at our surprise visitor.

On the couch sat a stunning woman, dressed immaculately in a business suit that accentuated her amazing looking figure. Her dark, glossy hair was combed up into a perfect bun that matched her attire, flawlessly radiating professionalism just from her posture in her seat.

Her head bobbing up and down in time to the lull of her conversation she was having with my father, a polite enthusiastic smile lighting up her face while she listened to him talk, her olive skin emphasizing her beauty by furnishing it an exotic flair.

...all I could think of at that moment was, when the hell did I tell this supermodel about my cape powers?

"Oh there you are." Dad saw me just standing there admiring the striking woman. "Come on Taylor, she's been waiting for you." He chuckled.

"O-oh!" I startled, suddenly very aware that I probably looked like a big idiot standing still with my jaw slack and openly staring at her . "I-I'm sorry!" I stepped into the living room quickly to avert embarrassing myself any further. "It's nice to meet you, Miss...?" I leaned closer to her and held out my hand for her to shake, hoping that my courtesy didn't look presumptuous.

"Call me Hannah," she accepted my hand with a magical smile, giving me a brief shake before letting me go. "Hannah Washington."

"Umm, so..." I sat down next to my father at the adjacent couch. "What brings you here, Miss Washington?" I asked politely.

"Please," She chuckling slightly, shaking her head, "Just Hannah will be fine, Miss Hebert."

"Then if I can call you Hannah, you can just call me Taylor." I insisted with a hearty smile, the nervousness I felt slowly draining away from her friendly and polite demeanor. Her wonderful smile widened at me response, and I really must say, she has a very honest smile.

"Well, Taylor," She started, sitting up more straightly with her face taking on a more professional look. I decided that it suited her quite well too. "I'm here simply because of our little discussion yesterday, before we handed over the paperwork that your father promised to look over."

"...discussion?" Yesterday? My mind raked for any event, any moment from yesterday where I had talked to such a dazzling woman, quite sure that I would have remembered it no matter how short it would be-

"Wait," I stilled."You said yesterday?"

"Yes, Taylor. Yesterday." My father interjected, with smirking mysteriously down at me, "Don't you remember telling her something interesting about yourself?"

"...The interview." I answered, and he nodded, grinning more impishly.

My eyes roamed over the mystifying form of Hannah Washington once more, suddenly becoming enveloped by an odd sense of familiarity. Her posture and her way with words, it all reminded me of...

"Oh," I state as I start to realize, face blank.

"Oh!" I exclaim as it finally sinks in, eyes wide behind my glasses, nearly jumping out of my seat. I leaned in closer as I whispered my next words, mindful that Emma could be hearing us from the basement.

"You're..."I still couldn't keep my excitement in and it reflected into the wide grin that exploded out of my face. "...Miss Militia!"

She affirmed my declaration with a slow, conspiring smile, inclining her head just tiny bit.

I giggled.

Miss Militia was in my house, sitting across from me like it was the most normal thing to do.

I giggled some more, unable to control myself.

 _Miss Militia is actually in my house!_

"I suppose we can consider the pleasantries finally out of the way, eh?" My dad said humorously, "I doubt Taylor will be any less starstruck for the next hour or so though, so talking might take a while." He joked. I would have responded, but I was too busy still giggling.

"While I am appreciative of her admiration, I actually am here to talk about some important matters, namely of what Taylor wants to do with her powers." Her tone did not lose any of its warmth, yet it still took on a more serious note. " And in regards to what she's told me of her desire to help our city's existing problem." She continued.

 _That_ , snatched my attention.

Or rather, our attention.

"What do you mean?" My Dad asks, frowning seriously. I sank into my seat a bit more, already aware of what she's talking about.

"Ah, she hasn't told you then." Hannah, or Miss Militia, said, looking between us and figuring out what was going on immediately.

"What does she mean?" My dad direct the question to me, frown still set.

"Ummm," I hesitated, looking to the hero across from me for help.

Seeing this, she sent me an apologetic look and answers my plea. "I suppose I should have anticipated her not being very forthcoming of this issue to you," She grabbed his attention with her words.

"But yesterday Taylor asked me if she can repair the Ferry with backing from the Protectorate, if she ever became a Ward." Miss Militia explains honestly.

There was a moment of silence, as my father processed what she said.

"Ah." Dad stated simply. "I see." He turns his attention to me, expression flat.

Looking at my father's face, I just knew that he wasn't very pleased.

"...I can explain?" I said meekly, wincing at how squeaky my voice sounded.

 _This is going to be really awkward._

+++V+++

"You really had to push this issue, didn't you?" My father sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose.

"It's a good cause! I had to ask, I mean the only issue with me fixing the ferry was getting PRT approval right? If I can get that then we're in the clear, I'll get the ferry looking good as new and people will flock back to the bay and we'll be able to help all of your people get more jobs right?" I took a deep breath, pleading with my eyes as I stared deep into his own.

"Isn't that what you want?"

"..." In response, my father merely closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

"If I may?" Ms. Washington cut in politely, holding up a hand. I looked at her and she continued. "While I certainly think that your intentions are pure and noble, it's would be wise listen to what your father's telling you. He would know, this won't be a cakewalk." Her kindly words were spoken with a volume of experience. I imagine that this isn't the first time she's dealing with a Ward having something of a family issue.

"I know that..."I mumbled. "But this is such a big thing for him and the people he works with, so with my powers I just thought..." I trailed off, starting to feel the disappointment creep back into my voice again. I wouldn't want Miss Militia to hear me be so whiny, since she's already seen me in such compromising situations.

"I understand, and I really do admire that you want to use your new powers to help people. That's always good to see." Her praise caused a heat to spread on my cheeks and her smile was hard not to reciprocate. "It's a selfless cause, and undoubtedly it will help a great many people in our city. The ferry's repair will surely bring some life back into our city's economy. If it was just about making jobs, the PRT would approve in a heartbeat."

My smile widens with excitement as I respond. "So the PRT can approve it?! Then that means-"

"-But," My excitement was cut off by Ms. Washington's sudden interruption. "This isn't _just_ about what we want. It's never that simple." She sighed, eyes closed as she finished her statement.

My jaw dropped.

"What?!" I can't believe this, what does that even mean?! Shouldn't the PRT's approval mean that rebuilding the ship will be fine in the eyes of the government?!

"Bureaucracy isn't something you want to deal with at your age, honey." Dad finally reenters our conversation with a sardonic statement. I looked to him again and saw that he had a tired smile on his face. "I've dealt with it as a big part of my job and let me tell you, it's really more trouble than you'll ever want to take on in your lifetime."

"Quite." Miss Militia agrees with a dry chuckle. "There are a lot of hoops to jump through and enough red tape to strangle you." She shakes her head. "Take it from me, a project of this scale will practically consume you completely. You won't have time to do anything else and even then you might still not be able to get your project through."

The thought of failing, it gave me pause. The doubt has always been there, but...

"B-but wouldn't it be worth it?"

My voice was small, so I gazed at both of them in turn, hoping my eyes could convey just how much this would mean.

Both of them suddenly kept silent.

"Even if it takes long, so long as I finish it, wouldn't it be worth all of that trouble?"

The words I spoke then were not words of a plea, but of a conviction. I know I'm starting to seem petulant, but I'm willing and _able._

It would be hard, but hasn't that what Dad's been fighting for all this time? Hasn't he dedicated his own career to getting that ferry back in shape, even when it consumed him, even when it burned him out so completely?

I see him coming home some days with a heavy weight on his shoulders, looking so resigned and distressed. Hasn't he carried that burden long enough?

I have the powers to make that go away.

I _know_ I can make it go away!

 _So why won't you let me make it go away!?_

"Taylor," Hannah called out to me softly. I tried to keep my aggravated thoughts off my face as I turn my attention to her. If this is another speech to try and make me stop, then I really don't feel like hearing it anymore.

"There's a fire in you we can't stop nor can we truly contain. This is a path that you've set for yourself and you're determined to see this through, no matter the consequences. And you know?" Her lips curved up into a small smile. "You really remind me of your mother."

I jolted back, taken by surprise.

"You knew my mom?" The question immediately left my lips before I could truly think about it, curiosity overwhelming me.

"Yes, I did." Her smile turns wistful, eyes nostalgic. "She was an amazing woman, and I'm sure Danny can attest to that." She shared a meaningful grin with my father, one that he returned slowly. "Her passion and dedication is something that Danny and I both admire about Annette, and it pains me so much to know that she isn't here anymore." Her voice was controlled, but the deep sorrow reverberated soundly in her words and resonated with mine.

"And that is _exactly_ why I'm here today," Her eyes found mine once more, and I saw in them the reflection of her desire for me to take her next words to heart. "When you talked to me about the ferry, I realized that you were ready to pour the exact same dedication that your mother would into this cause. Your heart is in the right place but I simply _must_ persuade you, before you've immersed yourself too deeply into this, that you must first truly understand what it means to do what you want to do."

I listened, subconsciously gulping at the intensity of her tone.

"There's a battle here that you don't see, something more than Danny hasn't exactly told you." Her lips formed in a thin line, giving my dad a sidelong glance. "You need to make her understand Danny, it has to come from you most of all."

He returned it for a fraction of a second, before he breathed out slowly.

"There's a reason I don't want you to be involved in this." My dad's voice held a tired tenor that accentuated his words. "I don't want you to give all your heart and soul into something that I want the municipality itself to fix."

"...what?"

What does he mean?

"The reason the government isn't interested in giving us the help to get this back to what it was, is because it's not worth the money." He looked at me as he said this. "Fixing that ferry? It's going to take a lot of funding, and even more to have it maintained, and they don't see the value in that because of how it's not sustainable." His words delivered with clear intent to get his point across. "The financial boost it's going to give Brockton Bay is statistically too small to actually be worth the trouble."

"...But shouldn't it still help?" Any help would be a big help, especially to this city. Wasn't that why he wanted to have reinstated?

"It will," he nodded to my question. "But not the help that you think it would."

"Then what...?"

"Brockton Bay isn't the same as it used to be, Taylor." He inflects that word with meaning. "I want the government to reinstate it themselves, to give the people a message. There's more to it than simply just getting it back into shape, because even if we do, it doesn't suddenly fix the city's economy, because..." He sighed, a drawn out sound reverberating with the exhaustion he no doubt felt for the longest time.

"...it was the economy that destroyed the ferry to begin with." He finished, face lined with creases of resignation.

"...oh."

That was all I could say after that. I felt my body slump down into my seat, a feeling of defeat starting to settle in. I looked down, a wave of disappointment rippling through my body that started to form into a frown onto my face. I held it back, knowing that it would seem childish, and that was not what I needed right now. I felt Dad put a hand on my shoulder so I raise my head slowly back to him

"It's politics, Taylor." He shot a wry smile over to Hannah, who responded with a small tug of her lips. "I know it sounds annoying, but this is really something you have to leave to us." He pursed his lips, but the hand on my shoulder gave me a reassuring squeeze. "I've been in this longer than you know, and I'm doing this for the people, but not just in the way that you think I am. Right now though? That ferry is less important to me than you risking your whole hero career over it."

His lips lifted up into a solemn smile. "There's no real need for you to actually do this yourself. You don't have to fix the ferry with your new powers, I'll be proud of you no matter what you do." He drew me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. "That ferry is your old man's job, so just let him take care of it while you go be a hero, alright?"

I let my forehead rest on top of his chest for a small while before I drew back and stared into his eyes, seeing my own reflect within them. The contradiction of his desires still hackled me, confounding my head.

Wasn't the renovation of the ferry his dream for the longest time now?

And yet, here I was presenting him with the opportunity to make it come true in the form of my powers, he was all but telling me that it was a bad idea.

 _Why?_

Confusion roiled around in my head, and within my heart the wish to make his dream come true with my own powers was still burned.

But he was still my father and I know he has to have a good reason. Whatever it was it seemed that even Miss Militia agreed with it.

I saw in the corner of my eye that she sat there observing our exchange silently, letting us have this moment. She had set lips in a more neutral line, yet I could tell that she was expecting me to go along with what my father was telling me just from the way her eyes shined slightly with nervousness.

I guess if even a hero wants me not to press this issue like my dad wants then...

"Okay." I nodded hesitantly, looking away from his eyes. I didn't want to give this up, but I conceded that they both had a point. It's more important for me to focus on actually starting my hero career rather than devoting myself to such a big project.

 _No matter how much I actually want to..._

He looked at me for one more second, before a relieved sigh exploded out of him.

"Good." He nodded at me with a calmer smile , his shoulders sagging. Miss Militia made a similar sigh, eyes closing while she placed a hand on her chest in relief.

Their reactions caused the tension in the room to melt away, the tight atmosphere finally dissipating.

Dad draws away from me with a pat on my head and flashed the hero across the table an apologetic grin.

"I'm sorry you got involved into this little tiff Hannah, I really should have known she'd be as stubborn as her mother when it came to this." He chuckled lightly, and she joined him.

"It's no trouble at all," she denies with a small dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm just glad to be of help. This was something big Danny, so I felt the need to make her understand the situation lest she goes in head first like Annette." She cocks her head slightly, an eyebrow raising daintily.

"Or like you, actually," she quipped, grinning at my dad.

I blink slightly, sort of surprised by her response.

 _Huh, she's actually making fun of Dad._

I took a peek at my father, seeing him grin at her right back and laughing.

 _And he's not taking it badly._

My mood slowly brightened at seeing my father relaxing around another person. Haven't seen much of that since mom's funeral, I really missed it.

I guess she knew him well enough that my Dad acted like that with her. Makes me wonder if she was this close with my mom...

"Oh trust me, I know." My dad cuts off my thoughts as ruffled my hair with a laugh, making me to frown slightly."She gets that from the both of us, I'm sure." He gave my hair another ruffle, and I half heartedly swatted his hand away.

That just made him laugh more, and I tried not to glare.

I hated it when he messed with my hair, it was such a hassle to fix later. My mood was already getting better, thank you very much. Don't make it worse again.

"Well if she does, then I imagine that she'll be a force to be reckoned with, soon enough." She said good naturedly.

"I'm not sure how to take that..." I mumbled quietly to myself. Being called something synonymous to 'terrifying' wasn't something I was keen on, especially by someone like Miss Militia. Makes me feel like I might grow to up to be something scary.

"I'm sure she meant it in the best way, kiddo." He ruffles my hair lightly. Ugh, again with the hair, I would have made a fuss about it already if Miss Militia wasn't here. I swatted at him again, this time more firmly and actually glaring.

Miss Militia watched us for a moment before she gave a short melodious laugh. "Well," she shakes her head slightly. "I suppose I've done what I came here for." She stood up from the couch, slightly brushing her skirt as she did. "I think it's time I go." Hearing this, my father and I stood as well.

"Are you sure you have to go?" My father asked her, gesturing at the dinner table. "I'm sure Taylor would love to talk more with you while I cook something up, get you something to eat." I smile at the thought of that, giddy at the prospect of hanging out with her more.

"I would honestly love to," she replied with another smile, before she shakes her head regretfully. "But duty calls, and I can't relax for too long-not in this city. It actually was nice to talk to you again, especially you Taylor." She directs a smile at me, causing my cheeks to heat up slightly. "I hope we'll get the opportunity to talk more, should we get the chance." She hints at me, winking. I giggled, knowing that she was encouraging me about joining the Wards.

"Well we'll see bout that, right after I'm done looking over those papers." My father jibes, smiling at her again as we began walking her toward the door."Can't exactly be too careful when it comes to those clauses, friend of mine actually recommended me to someone who knows a thing or two about parahuman contracts."

Miss Militia laughs at that, nodding agreeably. "I expect nothing less from you Danny," she replied affectionately, smirking. "For someone as important as Taylor, I just knew you'd be raking through those papers with a fine toothcomb." She smiles over to me again, eyes kind. I returned it enthusiastically, a warm feeling enveloping me.

It's really something special to know that she went out of her way to come to our house for me, even if I didn't exactly agree with what she and my father wanted me to do. It showed me that she was concerned for me, and I could still appreciate that, because more than her being a renowned hero of my town, she came her as the friend of my parents sharing her worry about the things I wanted to do.

Maybe it was cheesy, but somehow that made this visit more special.

"Well," My dad held the door out for her, a hand outstretched. "Remember, you're always welcome here Hannah, don't you ever feel like a stranger." She smiled once again, and shakes his offered hand.

"I'll keep that in mind." She said as she walked out of our house, before turning her attention back to me. "It's been a sincere pleasure to meet you again Taylor. You are very special, and in more ways than you realize." She leaned down to put a hand to my shoulder and leveled her gaze into my eyes, saying her next words very seriously. "I hope you know that."

I feel my cheeks heating up again at the fondness I saw in her eyes, finding myself unable to do anything then but respond dumbly. "Y-yeah." I stuttered out, before realizing how much a doofus I looked and tried again. "I-I mean yeah, it was really a-awesome to meet you again too. I really hope w-we can talk with each other again soon." I finished lamely, somehow making myself look more like a moron.

She grinned at me again before she pats my shoulder and straightening back up. "Yes, hopefully we can see each other again soon." She gave Dad a subtle look, still grinning. "For now I suppose I'll be on my way. I'll see you both later." She nodded one last time before walking away, off to the sidewalk and over to her car.

"Later!" I called out one last time as she drives by us one her way out, waving my arms. I see her wave back before she was too far away.

"So," I said once we entered our house again, Dad closing the door behind us. "Miss Militia huh?"

"Yep." He punctuates the 'p' with a pop. "Called her about you actually, right after you told me about being a cape." He scratched his beard lightly, contemplative. "Granted, I was vague about who I was talking about then, but I think she figured out after I started asking too many questions about capes. " He shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't exactly let me know that she knew, but kept giving me really specific advice like letting you take the pace and have you decide what you want to do with those powers, but still telling me about the dangers "

He puts his hands in his pockets and sighing. "Came clean to her once you told me about finally going through with the interview, told me what to do once we got there. " He smirks at me, eyes glinting. "Probably why she was the one conducting it too."

"Huh." The couch made a 'whomph' sound as I abruptly sat heavily onto it, turning my eyes to the ceiling. Emma and my bots are probably waiting for me down stairs but I felt too burned out to walk all the way over there right now.

"Could you go tell Emma that I'll be back down in like, a few minutes?" I said as I put an arm over my closed eyes, suddenly exhausted. That conversation about the ferry really did drain me, so some time to myself was much appreciated.

"Sure." I heard him agree, his footsteps pattering over to the basement door.

"Thanks." I called out just before hearing the door close.

Man, I really did feel tired. But still, I felt the curiosity nipping at the back of my mind.

How exactly did my mom know Miss Militia?

+++V+++

So this is chapter 7. Sorry for the delay, life has been kinda hectic recently. Anyways, thanks for reading, leave a review telling me what you think. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, flames are used for warming up cold days :D


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